Exclusion
Emily Dickinson · 1890
Public domain
From Poems by Emily Dickinson, published in 1890. The text is free of copyright in the United States. This copy is the poem, without the Project Gutenberg header.
The soul selects her own society,
Then shuts the door;
On her divine majority
Obtrude no more.
Unmoved, she notes the chariot's pausing
At her low gate;
Unmoved, an emperor is kneeling
Upon her mat.
I've known her from an ample nation
Choose one;
Then close the valves of her attention
Like stone.