Picture Window

Toward the end of last month, I shared some of Dickinson’s poems that used the word “May.” One of those poems, “One Sister have I in our house,” led me to explore poems with the word “house,” and I shared “Doom is the house without the door.”  That poem took me to other “door” poems, and I shared “One need not be a chamber to be haunted” and “I dwell in possibility" (HERE).

That poem opens with “I dwell in Possibility – / A fairer House than Prose – More numerous of Windows – Superior – for Doors –” so today I thought I’d share a “window” poem. 

The online Dickinson Archive shows 84 entries for the word “window,” and that represents 29 different poems.  Of course, one of the more famous “window” poems is “I heard a Fly buzz – when I died.”  The final stanza of that poem states, “With Blue - uncertain - stumbling Buzz - / Between the light - and me - / And then the Windows failed - and then / I could not see to see -."

A favorite “window” poem of mine is “I know some lonely Houses off the Road,” bit of comedy relief among her poems of death, grief, and loss.

There is a LOT to love about this poem – including the gagging of the clock, the moon that “slides down the stair,” the watchful rooster and the sneering train, but my favorite image of all is that of the forgetful old folks who, “just astir / Fancy the Sunrise—left the door ajar!”

Are there particular images that tickle you in this poem?