While I was fearing it, it came,
But came with less of fear,
Because that fearing it so long
Had almost made it dear.
There is a fitting a dismay,
A fitting a despair.
'Tis harder knowing it is due,
Than knowing it is here.
The trying on the utmost,
The morning it is new,
Is terribler than wearing it
A whole existence through.
- Emily Dickinson, 1924
2 comments:
"Terribler" is not a word.
-- Walt Whitman
Whitman's biggest and oddest pet peeve, apparently, since he had no other problems with linguistic, cultural, and poetic transgression. Perhaps a moment of weakness. Poor Emily. A rose for her.
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