What Emily Saw the Day She Didn’t Go to the Observatory

 

 

 

 

 

But were it told to me, today,
That I might have the Sky
For mine, I tell you that my heart
Would split for size of me.

So, safer, guess, with just my soul
Upon the window pane
Where other creatures put their eyes
Incautious of the sun.

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson


recent-meR. T. Smith has edited Shenandoah since 1995 and serves as Writer-in-Residence at Washington & Lee. His forthcoming books are Doves in Flight: 13 Fictions and Summoning Shades: New Poems, both due in 2017.