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I Have Never Seen "Volcanoes"


By Emily Dickinson


 

I have never seen "Volcanoes" --
But, when Travellers tell
How those old -- phlegmatic mountains
Usually so still --

Bear within -- appalling Ordnance,
Fire, and smoke, and gun,
Taking Villages for breakfast,
And appalling Men --

If the stillness is Volcanic
In the human face
When upon a pain Titanic
Features keep their place --

If at length the smouldering anguish
Will not overcome --
And the palpitating Vineyard
In the dust, be thrown?

If some loving Antiquary,
On Resumption Morn,
Will not cry with joy "Pompeii"!
To the Hills return!


Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) was born in Amherst, Massachusetts. Around 1850 she started to write poetry and over the years experimented with a number of different styles and types of poem. She was very prolific, and wrote over 1800 poems; but was equally shy and solitary, and in her own lifetime only six of these were published. After her death her poems were brought out by her sister Lavinia, who edited three volumes between 1891 and 1896. Even then the task wasn't fully completed, and it wasn't until the 1950's that the job of bringing Dickinson's poetry to the world was essentially completed.
 
Visit here to read another poem by Emily Dickinson called 'Nature - The Gentlest Mother'.

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For more information about Emily Dickinson visit the International Society web page which is devoted to her here. Or else you can find a nice biography, and links to over 1,700 of her poems here.

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