Holly's Secret Garden

A Reverie on Emily Dickens (1830-1886)

A sunny Sunday morning overflowing

Sublime songs from the church next door

Shafts of sunlight piercing the sedate heart

Thus comes to life the apparition of Emily Dickens----

She lulls and she comforts:

The vanity and futility of pursuing fame---

“How dreary—to be—Somebody! / How public---like a Frog / To tell one’s name---the livelong June---/ To an admiring Bog”

The intoxicating power of nature---

“I taste a liquor never brewed / From tankards scooped in Pearl / Not all the Vats upon the Rhine / Yield such an Alcohol /Inebriate of Air—am I--- / And Debauchee of Dew / Reeling---thro endless summer days / From inns of Molten Blue”

The serenity of country abode---

“Some keep the Sabbath going to Church / I keep it, staying at Home / With a Bobolink for a Chorister / And an orchard, for a Dome”

The Mystery of Death ---

“This world is not Conclusion / A sequel stands beyond / Invisible, as Music / But positive, as Sound / It beckons, and it baffles /Philosophy—don’t know / And through a Riddle, at the last”

Sing, Emily, sing for me forever,

Your Truth dressed up in white,

So unpolluted by time:

“Who has not found Heaven below / Will not find it above!”