Welcome to Stintless Stars, a free (!) newsletter that muses on literature, music, gender, and art. Expect me to over-analyze the gossipy drama of Romantic poets and harp on Joanna Newsom (pun intended).
I aspire for Stintless Stars to be a place for intellectual discourse, peace, and beauty. In this spirit, expect each essay to end with a poem.
Today’s post will end with “Before I got my eye put out –” by Emily Dickinson because I named my substack after a part of the poem.
Before I got my eye put out – by Emily Dickinson:
“Before I got my eye put out –
I liked as well to see
As other creatures, that have eyes –
And know no other way –
But were it told to me, Today,
That I might have the Sky
For mine, I tell you that my Heart
Would split, for size of me –
The Meadows – mine –
The Mountains – mine –
All Forests – Stintless stars –
As much of noon, as I could take –
Between my finite eyes –
The Motions of the Dipping Birds –
The Morning’s Amber Road –
For mine – to look at when I liked,
The news would strike me dead –
So safer – guess – with just my soul
Opon the window pane
Where other creatures put their eyes –
Incautious – of the Sun –”