Poems by Emily Dickinson: XXXI ("There's a certain slant of light")

Updated May 6, 2020 | Infoplease Staff
by EmilyDickinson
The Hemlock

XXXI

There's a certain slant of light,
On winter afternoons,
That oppresses, like the weight
Of cathedral tunes.
Heavenly hurt it gives us;
We can find no scar,
But internal difference
Where the meanings are.
None may teach it anything,
' T is the seal, despair, —
An imperial affliction
Sent us of the air.
When it comes, the landscape listens,
Shadows hold their breath;
When it goes, 't is like the distance
On the look of death.
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