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Emily Dickinson's Collected Poems

Part Three: Nature 82. There's a certain slant of light

There's a certain slant of light,

On winter afternoons,

That oppresses, like the weight

Of cathedral tunes.


Heavenly hurt it gives us;

We can find no scar,

But internal difference

Where the meanings are.


None may teach it anything,

' T is the seal, despair, --

An imperial affliction

Sent us of the air.


When it comes, the landscape listens,

Shadows hold their breath;

When it goes, 't is like the distance

On the look of death.

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