Emily Dickinson

Dec. 10, 1830 - May 15, 1886

 

Exclusion

by Emily Dickinson

The soul selects her own society,
Then shuts the door;
On her divine majority
Obtrude no more.

Unmoved, she notes the chariot's pausing
At her low gate;
Unmoved, an emperor is kneeling
Upon her mat.

I've known her from an ample nation
Choose one;
Then close the valves of her attention
Like stone.

Source:

Poems
Copyright 1890
Little, Brown, And Company, Boston