5 Aug 2010

Emily Dickinson, one of my favorite poets

Browsing through some of Emily Dickinson's poems I came across this one:

A PRECIOUS, mouldering pleasure ’t is
To meet an antique book,
In just the dress his century wore;
A privilege, I think,
  
His venerable hand to take,        5
And warming in our own,
A passage back, or two, to make
To times when he was young.
  
His quaint opinions to inspect,
His knowledge to unfold        10
On what concerns our mutual mind,
The literature of old;
  
What interested scholars most,
What competitions ran
When Plato was a certainty,        15
And Sophocles a man;
  
When Sappho was a living girl,
And Beatrice wore
The gown that Dante deified.
Facts, centuries before,        20
  
He traverses familiar,
As one should come to town
And tell you all your dreams were true:
He lived where dreams were born.
  
His presence is enchantment,        25
You beg him not to go;
Old volumes shake their vellum heads
And tantalize, just so.

2 comments:

The Bookworm said...

She is one of my favorites also.
I like this poem and these lines stand out:
'His presence is enchantment,
You beg him not to go;
Old volumes shake their vellum heads And tantalize, just so.'

It's so true that books enchant and tantalize us.
http://thebookworm07.blogspot.com/

Kat said...

Yes Naida...how true! And old books even more so