My Poem of the Week: 'One Need Not Be A Chamber To Be Haunted' by Emily Dickinson

[narya_flame]

Something for the season...


One Need Not Be A Chamber To Be Haunted

One need not be a chamber to be haunted,

One need not be a house;

The brain has corridors surpassing

Material place.

 

Far safer, of a midnight meeting

External ghost,

Than an interior confronting

That whiter host.

 

Far safer through an Abbey gallop,

The stones achase,

Than, moonless, one's own self encounter

In lonesome place.

 

Ourself, behind ourself concealed,

Should startle most;

Assassin, hid in our apartment,

Be horror's least.

 

The prudent carries a revolver,

He bolts the door,

O'erlooking a superior spectre

More near.

Comments

[spiced_wine]

Is that so very true, or what? How brilliant.

Far safer through an Abbey gallop,
The stones achase,
Than, moonless, one's own self encounter
In lonesome place.

[narya_flame]

Yes...there are things far worse than ghosts, and the mind is the most frightening place of all! "Ourself, behind ourself concealed..."

[hhimring]

Wise words!

Despite the seriousness of it, that bit about the abbey is rather an amusing image.

[narya_flame]

To me that always evokes classic gothic horror...the ghostly horseman galloping through the ruins...though I suppose if the abbey were intact and functioning, that's a somewhat different image!

[hhimring]

I am sure that you are right that that is what is intended!
I was just having a fit of literal-mindedness.

[mithrial]

The mind is full of hidden terrors.
As I get older, I've become far more accepting that medication is the only way to keep them at bay for many people. And I wouldn't deny anyone that.

Anyway, on a lighter note, I imagined the ruined abbeys of Hampshire with the horseman riding through. 'The stones achase' - wonderful phrase.

[narya_flame]

I really like that image too :D

But yes, you're right about mental terrors.