8 September 2024

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 –


Some keep the Sabbath in Surplice –

I just wear my Wings –

And instead of tolling the Bell for Church,

Our little Sexton – sings.


God preaches, a noted Clergyman –

And the sermon is never long.

So instead of getting to Heaven, at last –

I’m going, all along. (324)


The poet, Emily Dickinson, was the only member of her family who didn’t attend church. In adulthood, she lived a reclusive life wearing a white dress in the family home. She wrote poetry but published little. When she died, her sister, Vinnie,  found 1,775 poems. Many of them had been sewn into little books tied together with twine and ribbon and hidden in a box. When she counted them, there were sixty volumes!

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