As Sudden Shut

Song Cycle by Anna Clyne (b. 1980)

2. The Lost Thought  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
I felt a clearing in my mind
  As if my brain had split;
I tried to match it, seam by seam,
  But could not make them fit.

The thought behind I strove to join
  Unto the thought before,
But sequence ravelled out of reach
  Like balls upon a floor.

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Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • GER German (Deutsch) (Walter A. Aue) , copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Confirmed with Poems by Emily Dickinson. Third Series, ed by Mabel Loomis Todd, Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1896.

Note: in later editions, in stanza 1 line 1, the word "clearing" is replaced by "cleavage" or "cleaving".


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

3. Postponeless Creature  [sung text not yet checked]

Language: English 
It's coming -- the postponeless Creature --
It gains the Block -- and now -- it gains the Door --
Chooses its latch, from all the other fastenings --
Enters -- with a "You know Me -- Sir"?

Simple Salute -- and certain Recognition --
Bold -- were it Enemy -- Brief -- were it friend --
Dresses each House in Crape, and Icicle --
And carries one -- out of it -- to God --

Text Authorship:

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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
Total word count: 107