How happy is the little Stone 1
That rambles in the Road alone,
And doesn't care about Careers
And Exigencies never fears－
Whose Coat of elemental Brown 5
A passing Universe put on,
And independent as the Sun
Associates or glows alone,
Fulfilling absolute Decree 9
In casual simplicity－
That rambles in the Road alone,
And doesn't care about Careers
And Exigencies never fears－
Whose Coat of elemental Brown 5
A passing Universe put on,
And independent as the Sun
Associates or glows alone,
Fulfilling absolute Decree 9
In casual simplicity－
(F.1570/J.1510)
[1] Stone:: a planet when we view through a astronomical telescope. A stone is a pebble, a hint on the lens of a telescope. Dickinson nicknamed this poem Pebble in her letter (L.749): "Would you accept a Pebble I think I gave to her, though I am not sure."
[2] rambles, Road alone:: a planet in its orbit.
[5] Coat, Brown:: color of the planet.
[6,7,8] Universe, Sun, glows:: hint for a planet.
[9, 10] absolute Decree, simplicity:: a hint at orbit.
She fills the illimitable heavens with planetary and starry grandeurs, and the tiny atoms moving over the crust of earth she makes the homes of the infinitely little. Far as the mightiest telescope can reach, it detects worlds in clusters, like pebbles on the shore of Infinitude; ─ The Cornhill Magazine, Issue 987 (1860)