ROUGE GAGNE.

June 10, 2007 in Life, Poems | 1 comment

ROUGE GAGNE.‘T is so much joy! ‘T is so much joy!
If I should fail, what poverty!
And yet, as poor as I
Have ventured all upon a throw;
Have gained! Yes! Hesitated so
This side the victory!

Life is but life, and death but death!
Bliss is but bliss, and breath but breath!
And if, indeed, I fail,
At least to know the worst is sweet.
Defeat means nothing but defeat,
No drearier can prevail!

And if I gain, — oh, gun at sea,
Oh, bells that in the steeples be,
At first repeat it slow!
For heaven is a different thing
Conjectured, and waked sudden in,
And might o’erwhelm me so!

This is a lovely example of Dickinson’s grace and courage against certain doom; there are echoes in it of Browning’s “Childe Roland”, or perhaps even more Camus’ “Sisyphus”. “Life is but life, and death is but death”–perhaps that’s what the doomed fellow chants as he pushes his rock up the hill.

This photo is available as a greeting card.