Emily Dickinson

The Complete Poems [1924]

The soul selects her own society

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.