[More life went out, when he went,]

Emily Dickinson

More life went out, when he went,
Than ordinary breath,
Lit with a finer phosphor
Requiring in the quench

A power of the renownéd cold—
The climate of the grave—
A temperature just adequate
So [To?] anthracite to live.

For some an ampler zero,
A frost more needle-keen
Is necessary to reduce
The Ethiop within.

Others extinguish easier—
A gnat’s minutest fan
Sufficient to obliterate
A tract of citizen.

The Yale Review is committed to publishing pieces from its archive as they originally appeared, without alterations to spelling, content, or style. Occasionally, errors creep in due to the digitization process; we work to correct these errors as we find them. You can email [email protected] with any you find.

Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) was an American poet who authored nearly 1,800 poems, most of which were not published until after her death.

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