Poems and Letters

Love- thou art high-
I cannot climb thee-
But, were it Two-
Who knows but we-
Taking turns- at the Chimborazo-
Ducal- at last- stand up by thee-

Love- thou art deep-
I cannot cross thee-
But- were there Two-
Instead of One-
Rower, and Yacht- some sovereign Summer-
Who knows- but we'd reach the Sun?

Love- thou art Veiled-
A few- behold thee-
Smile- and alter- and prattle- and die-
Bliss- were an Oddity- without thee-
Nicknamed by God-
Eternity-

NOTES

Emily wrote this poem in 1862.

Chimborazo: "the highest peak of the Andes Mountains in Ecuador, rising to 6,310 meters" (20,577 feet) (Oxford Dictionary, 1995). "...and Chimborazo, with its glorious canopy of snow, glittering far above the clouds, crowns the whole as a celestial diadem" (Prescott, History of the Conquest of Peru, 1847).

Ducal: "like, as, or bearing the title of duke" (Oxford Dictionary, 1995).

It is # 452 in Johnson, Letters.