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Non omnis moriar

There's a certain slant of light,

by Emily Dickinson · Explore poems

  1. There's a certain slant of light,
  2. On winter afternoons,
  3. That oppresses, like the weight
  4. Of cathedral tunes.
  5.  
  6. Heavenly hurt it gives us;
  7. We can find no scar,
  8. But internal difference
  9. Where the meanings are.
  10.  
  11. None may teach it anything,
  12. 'T is the seal, despair, --
  13. An imperial affliction
  14. Sent us of the air.
  15.  
  16. When it comes, the landscape listens,
  17. Shadows hold their breath;
  18. When it goes, 't is like the distance
  19. On the look of death.
  20.  
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  24.  
  25.  
  26. IV. TIME AND ETERNITY.

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