For Stormy Weather

[Image by Brook Burling.]

My boys and I are spending a year with Emily Dickinson. We read poetry every day together, and she stashed away enough in her boxes under her bed to give us plenty to discover during the coming year. Nothing gets you acquainted with a poet like reading their verses for months on end. (And have your children discovered that delightful picture book, Emily by Michael Bedard and Barbara Cooney?)

Most of our life was spent in Michigan, where blizzards could be ferocious, but when traveling in the South, and since having moved to Virginia, we have found that nothing matches the ferocity of thunderstorms here. After a wild and crashing storm a couple of weeks ago, my youngest decided to memorize this one. It sounds like New England served up some similarly terrifying weather on occasion. Dickinson puts some fascination in place of fear with her vivid word pictures. –Liz

—–

The Storm

by Emily Dickinson

There came a Wind like a Bugle—

It quivered through the Grass

And a green Chill upon the Heat

So ominous did pass

We barred the Windows and the Doors

As from an Emerald ghost—

The Doom’s electric moccasin

That very instant passed—

On a strange Mob of panting Trees

And Fences fled away

And Rivers where the Houses ran

Those looked that lived–that day—

The Bell within the steeple wild

The flying tidings told—

How much can come

And much can go,

And yet abide the World!

—–

Image by Brook Burling. See more of her incredible photographs here, and consider purchasing the image in this post for your own. 

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Liz Cottrill

When Liz's kids wonder what's for dinner, she has been known to suggest "books."

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