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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


HE PUT THE BELT AROUND MY LIFE by EMILY DICKINSON

Poet Analysis

Last Line: For Whom I must decline?
Subject(s): LIFE;

He put the Belt around my life
I heard the Buckle snap -
And turned away, imperial,
My Lifetime folding up -
Deliberate, as a Duke would do
A Kingdom's Title Deed -
Henceforth, a Dedicated sort -
A Member of the Cloud.

Yet not too far to come at call -
And do the little Toils
That make the Circuit of the Rest -
And deal occasional smiles
To lives that stoop to notice mine -
And kindly ask it in -
Whose invitation, know you not
For Whom I must decline?



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