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, in 'Complete Poems'

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