Page:The complete poems of Emily Dickinson, (IA completepoemsofe00dick 1).pdf/91

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LIFE

CXXXVI

I STEPPED from plank to plankSo slow and cautiously;The stars about my head I felt,About my feet the sea.
I knew not but the nextWould be my final inch,—This gave me that precarious gaitSome call experience.


CXXXVII

ONE day is there of the seriesTermed Thanksgiving day,Celebrated part at table,Part in memory.
Neither patriarch nor pussy,I dissect the play;Seems it, to my hooded thinking,Reflex holiday.
Had there been no sharp subtractionFrom the early sum,Not an acre or a captionWhere was once a room,
Not a mention, whose small pebbleWrinkled any bay,—Unto such, were such assembly,’Twere Thanksgiving day.

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