Bring Me the Sunset in a Cup
poem 128
Bring Me the Sunset in a Cup - context Summary
Composed 1859, Published 1891
Written in 1859 and first published posthumously in 1891, this poem appears in Poems by Emily Dickinson, Second Series. Its context is within Dickinson’s mid‑19th century, largely private manuscript culture: she wrote for herself, assembling poems into packets that were later edited and printed after her death. The poem’s catalog of curiosities and unanswered questions fits the introspective, nature‑inflected work she produced in the late 1850s, and its later publication shaped how readers encountered her elliptical style and thematic preoccupations with wonder and confinement.
Read Complete AnalysesBring me the sunset in a cup, Reckon the morning’s flagons up And say how many Dew, Tell me how far the morning leaps Tell me what time the weaver sleeps Who spun the breadth of blue! Write me how many notes there be In the new Robin’s ecstasy Among astonished boughs How many trips the Tortoise makes How many cups the Bee partakes, The Debauchee of Dews! Also, who laid the Rainbow’s piers, Also, who leads the docile spheres By withes of supple blue? Whose fingers string the stalactite Who counts the wampum of the night To see that none is due? Who built this little Alban House And shut the windows down so close My spirit cannot see? Who’ll let me out some gala day With implements to fly away, Passing Pomposity?
Feel free to be first to leave comment.