POEM
A little East of Jordan, (145)
A little East of Jordan,
Evangelists record,
A Gymnast and an Angel
Did wrestle long and hard –
Till morning touching mountain –
And Jacob, waxing strong,
The Angel begged permission
To Breakfast – to return!
Not so, said cunning Jacob!
"I will not let thee go
Except thou bless me" – Stranger!
The which acceded to –
Light swung the silver fleeces
"Peniel" Hills beyond,
And the bewildered Gymnast
Found he had worsted God!
Reprinted electronically by permission of the publishers and the Trustees of Amherst College from The Poems of Emily Dickinson, Ralph W. Franklin, ed., Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Copyright © 1951, 1955, 1979, 1983, 1998 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College.
Source: The Poems of Emily Dickinson, Edited by R.W. Franklin (Harvard University Press, 1999)
A poet who took definition as her province, Emily Dickinson challenged the existing . . . MORE »
More Poems by Emily Dickinson
After great pain, a formal feeling comes – (372)
They shut me up in Prose – (445)
Some keep the Sabbath going to Church – (236)
Because I could not stop for Death – (479)
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