That sacred Closet when you sweep－1
Entitled "Memory"－
Select a reverential Broom－
And do it silently.
'Twill be a Labor of surprise－5
Besides Identity
Of other Interlocutors
A probability－
August the Dust of that Domain－9
Unchallenged－let it lie－
You cannot supersede itself
But it can silence you－
Entitled "Memory"－
Select a reverential Broom－
And do it silently.
'Twill be a Labor of surprise－5
Besides Identity
Of other Interlocutors
A probability－
August the Dust of that Domain－9
Unchallenged－let it lie－
You cannot supersede itself
But it can silence you－
(F.1385/J.1273)
[1] Closet:: closet drama. sweep:: to view, survey.
[2] "Memory":: title of the drama.
[6] Identity:: not a surprise, because the one reading the script knew the author.
[7] Interlocutors:: dialoguers in the script.
[8] probability:: the reader may know the characters in the script.
[9] August:: to ripen, reach maturity, as fruits in August. Dust:: the tumult and chaos in the plot.
[9, 10] August, Domain Unchallenged:: treat this script with maturity without critics.
[11] cannot supersede itself:: you cannot write better.
[12] silence you:: because this script contains a true story, so you can say nothing.
Of all literary productions the most uninteresting, because the most unnatural, is the closet drama. It is unnatural, because a drama not designed for action implies a contradiction; the very meaning of the word being an acted poem. ─ The British critic (1824)
Dickinson wrote her own life and kept in her closet－a book composed of 40 fascicles which she titled it, Memory. There is a special way to read it.