Time & Brevity

A clock stopped -- not the mantel's

by Emily Dickinson 1830–1886

Time & Brevity

A clock stopped -- not the mantel's;
Geneva's farthest skill
Can't put the puppet bowing
That just now dangled still.

An awe came on the trinket!
The figures hunched with pain,
Then quivered out of decimals
Into degreeless noon.

It will not stir for doctors,
This pendulum of snow;
The shopman importunes it,
While cool, concernless No

Nods from the gilded pointers,
Nods from the seconds slim,
Decades of arrogance between
The dial life and him.

MLA

Dickinson, Emily. “A clock stopped -- not the mantel's.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/dickinson/439/.

Chicago

Dickinson, Emily. “A clock stopped -- not the mantel's.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/dickinson/439/.

Read this poem with the Codex →

More by Emily Dickinson