No rack can torture me,
My soul’s at liberty.
Behind this mortal bone
There knits a bolder one:
You cannot prick with saw,
Nor rend with scymitar.
Two bodies therefore be;
Bind one, and one will flee.
The eagle of his nest
No easier divest
And gain the sky,
Than mayest thou;
Except thyself may be
Thine enemy;
Captivity is consciousness,
So’s liberty.
First print Time and Eternity XXXV, 35
Johnson 384 | Franklin 649
Text compared with the fascicle and prepared for publication by Teresa Pelka, available under any of the following licenses:
■Creative Commons License 4.0, BY-SA 3.0, and License 2.5.
Poems, first print by Higginson and Todd, page 147;
Semicolon for stanza end; thematic arrangement for the poetic self.
■Notes for Emily Dickinson’s poetry;
Poems one-by-one print and fascicle comparison,
■Resource for Emily Dickinson’s poetry;
■Google Drive, manuscript fascicles.