I see thee better in the dark

Emily Dickinson

I SEE thee better in the dark,
I do not need a light.
The love of thee a prism be
Excelling violet.

I see thee better for the years
That hunch themselves between,
The miner's lamp sufficient be
To nullify the mine.

And in the grave I see thee best—
Its little panels be
A-glow, all ruddy with the light
I held so high for thee!

What need of day to those whose dark
Hath so surpassing sun,
It seem it be continually
At the meridian?

Poetry Tale: The Woman Next Door

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TEXT PROVENANCE · First published 1914 in The Single Hound: Poems of a Lifetime · Text from The Single Hound: Poems of a Lifetime (1914), ed. Martha Dickinson Bianchi, via Wikisource.

The Single Hound (1914)

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