There’s a certain Slant of light
Emily Dickinson, 1890
Emily Dickinson's poem on the heavy, oppressive light of winter afternoons.
There’s a certain slant of light,On winter afternoons,That oppresses, like the weightOf cathedral tunes.
Heavenly hurt it gives us;We can find no scar,But internal differenceWhere the meanings are.
None may teach it anything,‘T is the seal, despair,—An imperial afflictionSent us of the air.
When it comes, the landscape listens,Shadows hold their breath;When it goes, ‘t is like the distanceOn the look of death.