Daily Sip - I Cannot Live with You

I cannot live with You -
It would be Life -
And Life is over there -
Behind the Shelf

The Sexton keeps the Key to -
Putting up
Our Life - His Porcelain -
Like a Cup -

Discarded of the Housewife -
Quaint - or Broke -
A newer Sevres pleases -
Old Ones crack -

I could not die - with You -
For One must wait
To shut the Other's Gaze down -
You - could not -

And I - could I stand by
And see You - freeze -
Without my Right of Frost -
Death's privilege?

Nor could I rise - with You -
Because Your Face
Would put out Jesus' -
That New Grace

Glow plain - and foreign
On my homesick Eye -
Except that You than He
Shone closer by -

They'd judge Us - How -
For You - served Heaven - You know,
Or sought to -
I could not -

Because You saturated Sight -
And I had no more Eyes
For sordid excellence
As Paradise

And were You lost, I would be -
Though My Name
Rang loudest
On the Heavenly fame -
And were You - saved -
And I - condemned to be
Where You were not -
That self - were Hell to Me -

So We must meet apart -
You there - I - here -
With just the Door ajar
That Oceans are - and Prayer -
And that White Sustenance -
Despair -

-Emily Dickinson

I can't get over the punctuation long enough to read the entire poem :/ I wonder why she did this?

Now that's a beast of a "sad love" poem if I've ever heard one. I think the last stanza is just... perfect. In fact, I think the whole poem is pretty dang spectacular. Stanzas 4 - 11 had me tearing up.

Some are wholly against the "hyphen," but I think when they're used like this, they are creating intentional pauses. Are the necessary? It's interesting to look at which phrases are set apart by hyphen. Thoughts?

Here's a good analysis of the poem that I found. They do seem to touch on the punctuation, Britt! At least in the first few sections referring to china dishes, they talk about some lines being more "cracked." Maybe it represents a brokenness? Anyway.

http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/310

Have to agree with Britt here. The hyphens and upper case letters keep me from enjoying the content.

Oi.

That certainly was a pretty thorough analysis and mirrored what I thought the poem was about- that of a fearfully, painfully all-encompassing love. It also made me thankful that I never officially pursued the study of 'Literature'. I appreciate Emily's work, but I've never really dug it. Good on you, Sib, for showing us how poets have used different techniques and styles through the ages.