A Deed knocks first at Thought in  General   

A Deed knocks first at Thought
And then -- it knocks at Will --
That is the manufacturing spot
And Will at Home and well

It then goes out an Act
Or is entombed so still
That only to the ear of God
Its Doom is audible --

By Emily Dickinson

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Other poems by Emily Dickinson:

• "And with what body do they come?" --
• "Arcturus" is his other name
• "Faith" is a fine invention
• "Faithful to the end" Amended
• "Go tell it" -- What a Message --
• "Go travelling with us!"
• "Heaven" -- is what I cannot reach!
• "Heaven" has different Signs -- to me --
• "Heavenly Father" -- take to thee
• "Hope" is the thing with feathers
• "Houses" -- so the Wise Men tell me
• "I want" -- it pleaded -- All its life --
• "Lethe" in my flower,
• "Morning" -- means "Milking" -- to the Farmer
• "Nature" is what we see --
• "Red Sea," indeed!  Talk not to me
• "Remember me" implored the Thief!
• "Secrets" is a daily word
• "Sic transit gloria mundi"
• "Sown in dishonor"!
• "Speech" -- is a prank of Parliament --
• "They have not chosen me," he said,
• "Tomorrow" -- whose location
• "Unto Me?"  I do not know you --
• "Was not" was all the Statement.
• "Why do I love" You, Sir?
• A Bee his burnished Carriage
• A Bird came down the Walk
• A Burdock -- clawed my Gown
• A Cap of Lead across the sky
• A Charm invests a face
• A chilly Peace infests the Grass
• A Clock stopped
• A Cloud withdrew from the Sky
• A Coffin -- is a small Domain,
• A Counterfeit -- a Plated Person --
• A curious Cloud surprised the Sky,
• A darting fear -- a pomp -- a tear
• A Day! Help! Help! Another Day!
• A Death blow is a Life blow to Some
• A Deed knocks first at Thought
• A Dew sufficed itself --
• A Diamond on the Hand
• A Dimple in the Tomb
• A Door just opened on a street --
• A doubt if it be Us
• A Drop Fell on the Apple Tree --
• A Drunkard cannot meet a Cork
• A Dying Tiger -- moaned for Drink --
• A face devoid of love or grace,
• A faded Boy -- in sallow Clothes
• A feather from the Whippoorwill
• A Field of Stubble, lying sere
• A first Mute Coming --
• A Flower will not trouble her, it has so small a F
• A full fed Rose on meals of Tint
• A fuzzy fellow, without feet,
• A great Hope fell
• A happy lip -- breaks sudden
• A House upon the Height
• A Lady red -- amid the Hill
• A lane of Yellow led the eye
• A Letter is a joy of Earth --
• A Light exists in Spring
• A little bread -- a crust -- a crumb
• A little Dog that wags his tail
• A little East of Jordan,
• A little Madness in the Spring
• A little overflowing word
• A little Road -- not made of Man --
• A little Snow was here and there
• A long -- long Sleep -- A famous -- Sleep --
• A loss of something ever felt I --
• A Man may make a Remark --
• A Mien to move a Queen
• A Mine there is no Man would own
• A Moth the hue of this
• A Murmur in the Trees -- to note
• A narrow Fellow in the Grass
• A nearness to Tremendousness --
• A Night -- there lay the Days between
• A Pang is more conspicuous in Spring
• A Pit -- but Heaven over it --
• A Planted Life -- diversified
• A poor -- torn heart -- a tattered heart
• A Prison gets to be a friend --
• A prompt -- executive Bird is the Jay --
• A Rat surrendered here
• A Route of Evanescence
• A Saucer holds a Cup
• A science -- so the Savants say,
• A Secret told
• A sepal, petal, and a thorn
• A Shade upon the mind there passes
• A shady friend -- for Torrid days
• A Sickness of this World it most occasions
• A single Clover Plank
• A single Screw of Flesh
• A slash of Blue
• A Sloop of Amber slips away
• A soft Sea washed around the House
• A solemn thing -- it was -- I said
• A Solemn thing within the Soul
• A South Wind -- has a pathos
• A Sparrow took a Slice of Twig
• A Spider sewed at Night
• A stagnant pleasure like a Pool
• A still -- Volcano -- Life --
• A Thought went up my mind today --
• A throe upon the features
• A Toad, can die of Light --
• A Tongue -- to tell Him I am true!
• A Tooth upon Our Peace
• A train went through a burial gate,
• A transport one cannot contain
• A Visitor in Marl
• A Weight with Needles on the pounds
• A Wife -- at daybreak I shall be
• A wild Blue sky abreast of Winds
• A Wind that rose
• A winged spark doth soar about --
• A Word dropped careless on a Page
• A word is dead
• A Word made Flesh is seldom
• A World made penniless by that departure
• A Wounded Deer -- leaps highest
• Abraham to kill him --
• Absence disembodies -- so does Death
• Absent Place -- an April Day --
• Adrift! A little boat adrift!
• Afraid!  Of whom am I afraid?
• After a hundred years
• After all Birds have been investigated and laid as
• After great pain, a formal feeling comes
• After the Sun comes out
• Again -- his voice is at the door --
• Ah, Moon -- and Star!
• Ah, Necromancy Sweet!
• Ah, Teneriffe!
• Air has no Residence, no Neighbor,
• All but Death, can be Adjusted --
• All Circumstances are the Frame
• All forgot for recollecting
• All I may, if small,
• All men for Honor hardest work
• All overgrown by cunning moss,
• All that I do
• All the letters I can write
• All these my banners be.
• All things swept sole away
• Alone and in a Circumstance
• Alone, I cannot be
• Alter! When the Hills do --
• Although I put away his life
• Always Mine!
• Ambition cannot find him.
• Ample make this Bed --
• An altered look about the hills
• An antiquated Grace
• An Antiquated Tree
• An honest Tear
• An Hour is a Sea
• An ignorance a Sunset
• And this of all my Hopes
• Angels, in the early morning
• Answer July
• Apology for Her
• Apparently with no surprise
• Are Friends Delight or Pain?
• Arrows enamored of his Heart --
• Art thou the thing I wanted?
• Artists wrestled here!
• As by the dead we love to sit,
• As Children bid the Guest "Good Night"
• As Everywhere of Silver
• As far from pity, as complaint
• As from the earth the light Balloon
• As Frost is best conceived
• As if I asked a common Alms
• As if some little Arctic flower
• As if the Sea should part
• As imperceptibly as Grief
• As old as Woe --
• As One does Sickness over
• As plan for Noon and plan for Night
• As Sleigh Bells seem in summer
• As subtle as tomorrow
• As Summer into Autumn slips
• As the Starved Maelstrom laps the Navies
• As Watchers hang upon the East,
• As we pass Houses musing slow
• Ashes denote that Fire was --
• At Half past Three, a single Bird
• At last, to be identified!
• At least -- to pray -- is left -- is left --
• At leisure is the Soul
• Aurora is the effort
• Autumn -- overlooked my Knitting --
• Awake ye muses nine
• Away from Home are some and I --
• Back from the cordial Grave I drag thee
• Baffled for just a day or two
• Banish Air from Air --
• Be Mine the Doom --
• Beauty -- be not caused -- It Is --
• Beauty crowds me till I die
• Because He loves Her
• Because I could not stop for Death --
• Because my Brook is fluent
• Because that you are going
• Because the Bee may blameless hum
• Bees are Black, with Gilt Surcingles --
• Before He comes we weigh the Time!
• Before I got my eye put out
• Before the ice is in the pools
• Before you thought of Spring
• Behind Me -- dips Eternity --
• Behold this little Bane --
• Belshazzar had a Letter --
• Bereaved of all, I went abroad --
• Bereavement in their death to feel
• Besides the Autumn poets sing
• Besides this May
• Best Things dwell out of Sight
• Best Witchcraft is Geometry
• Betrothed to Righteousness might be
• Better -- than Music! For I -- who heard it --
• Between My Country -- and the Others --
• Between the form of Life and Life
• Bind me -- I still can sing --
• Birthday of but a single pang
• Blazing in Gold and quenching in Purple
• Bless God, he went as soldiers,
• Bliss is the plaything of the child --
• Bloom -- is Result -- to meet a Flower
• Bloom upon the Mountain -- stated --
• Blossoms will run away,
• Bound -- a trouble
• Bring me the sunset in a cup,
• Brother of Ingots -- Ah Peru --
• But little Carmine hath her face --
• By a departing light
• By a flower -- By a letter
• By Chivalries as tiny,
• By homely gift and hindered Words
• By my Window have I for Scenery
• By such and such an offering
• Candor -- my tepid friend --
• Circumference thou Bride of Awe
• Civilization -- spurns -- the Leopard!
• Climbing to reach the costly Hearts
• Cocoon above! Cocoon below!
• Color -- Caste -- Denomination --
• Come show thy Durham Breast
• Come slowly -- Eden!
• Conferring with myself
• Confirming All who analyze
• Conjecturing a Climate
• Conscious am I in my Chamber,
• Contained in this short Life
• Cosmopolities without a plea
• Could -- I do more -- for Thee
• Could Hope inspect her Basis
• Could I -- then -- shut the door
• Could I but ride indefinite
• Could live -- did live
• Could mortal lip divine
• Could that sweet Darkness where they dwell
• Count not that far that can be had,
• Crisis is a Hair
• Crisis is sweet and yet the Heart
• Dare you see a Soul at the White Heat?
• Dear March -- Come in --
• Death is a Dialogue between
• Death is like the insect
• Death is potential to that Man
• Death is the supple Suitor
• Death leaves Us homesick, who behind,
• Death sets a Thing significant
• Death warrants are supposed to be
• Declaiming Waters none may dread --
• Defrauded I a Butterfly --
• Delayed till she had ceased to know
• Delight -- becomes pictorial --
• Delight is as the flight
• Denial -- is the only fact
• Departed -- to the Judgment --
• Deprived of other Banquet,
• Dew -- is the Freshet in the Grass --
• Did Our Best Moment last
• Did the Harebell loose her girdle
• Did We abolish Frost
• Did we disobey Him?
• Distance -- is not the Realm of Fox
• Distrustful of the Gentian
• Do People moulder equally,
• Dominion lasts until obtained --
• Doom is the House without the Door
• Doubt Me! My Dim Companion!
• Drab Habitation of Whom?
• Dreams are the subtle Dower
• Dropped into the Ether Acre --
• Drowning is not so pitiful
• Dust is the only Secret
• Dying at my music!
• Dying!  To be afraid of thee
• Dying! Dying in the night!
• Each Life Converges to some Centre --
• Each Second is the last
• Each that we lose takes part of us;
• Eden is that old-fashioned House
• Elizabeth told Essex
• Elysium is as far as to
• Embarrassment of one another
• Empty my Heart, of Thee --
• Endanger it, and the Demand
• Ended, ere it begun --
• Endow the Living -- with the Tears --
• Escape is such a thankful Word
• Escaping backward to perceive
• Essential Oils -- are wrung --
• Estranged from Beauty -- none can be --
• Except the Heaven had come so near
• Except the smaller size
• Except to Heaven, she is nought.
• Exhilaration -- is within
• Exhilaration is the Breeze
• Expanse cannot be lost --
• Expectation -- is Contentment --
• Experience is the Angled Road
• Experiment escorts us last --
• Experiment to me
• Extol thee -- could I?  Then I will
• Exultation is the going
• Facts by our side are never sudden
• Fairer through Fading -- as the Day
• Faith -- is the Pierless Bridge
• Falsehood of Thee could I suppose
• Fame is a bee.
• Fame is a fickle food
• Fame is the one that does not stay --
• Fame is the tine that Scholars leave
• Fame of Myself, to justify,
• Far from Love the Heavenly Father
• Fate slew Him, but He did not drop --
• Few, yet enough,
• Finding is the first Act
• Finite -- to fail, but infinite to Venture --
• Fitter to see Him, I may be
• Flowers -- Well -- if anybody
• Follow wise Orion
• For Death -- or rather
• For each ecstatic instant
• For every Bird a Nest
• For this -- accepted Breath
• Forbidden Fruit a flavor has
• Forever -- it composed of Nows --
• Forever at His side to walk
• Forever honored by the Tree
• Forget! The lady with the Amulet
• Fortitude incarnate
• Four Trees -- upon a solitary Acre --
• Frequently the wood are pink
• Frigid and sweet Her parting Face --
• From all the Jails the Boys and Girls
• From Blank to Blank --
• From Cocoon forth a Butterfly
• From his slim Palace in the Dust
• From Us She wandered now a Year,
• Funny -- to be a Century
• Further in Summer than the Birds
• Garland for Queens, may be
• Gathered into the Earth,
• Give little Anguish
• Given in Marriage unto Thee
• Glass was the Street -- in tinsel Peril
• Glee -- The great storm is over --
• Glory is that bright tragic thing
• Glowing is her Bonnet,
• Go not too near a House of Rose --
• Go slow, my soul, to feed thyself
• Go thy great way!
• God gave a Loaf to every Bird --
• God is a distant -- stately Lover
• God is indeed a jealous God --
• God made a little Gentian
• God made no act without a cause,
• God permits industrious Angels
• Going to Heaven!
• Going to Him! Happy letter!
• Good Morning -- Midnight
• Good Night! Which put the Candle out?
• Good night, because we must,
• Gratitude -- is not the mention
• Great Caesar! Condescend
• Great Streets of silence led away
• Grief is a Mouse --
• Growth of Man -- like Growth of Nature --
• Guest am I to have
• Had I known that the first was the last
• Had I not seen the Sun
• Had I not This, or This, I said,
• Had I presumed to hope --
• Had this one Day not been.
• Had we known the Ton she bore
• Had we our senses
• Have any like Myself
• Have you got a Brook in your little heart,
• He ate and drank the precious Words --
• He forgot -- and I -- remembered
• He found my Being -- set it up --
• He fumbles at your Soul
• He gave away his Life --
• He is alive, this morning --
• He lived the Life of Ambush
• He outstripped Time with but a Bout,
• He parts Himself -- like Leaves --
• He preached upon "Breadth" till it argued him narr
• He put the Belt around my life
• He scanned it -- staggered --
• He strained my faith
• He told a homely tale
• He touched me, so I live to know
• He was my host -- he was my guest,
• He was weak, and I was strong -- then
• He went by sleep that drowsy route
• He who in Himself believes --
• Heart! We will forget him!
• Heart, not so heavy as mine
• Heaven is so far of the Mind
• Her -- "last Poems"
• Her breast is fit for pearls,
• Her face was in a bed of hair,
• Her final Summer was it --
• Her Grace is all she has --
• Her little Parasol to lift
• Her Losses make our Gains ashamed --
• Her smile was shaped like other smiles --
• Her sovereign People
• Her spirit rose to such a height
• Her Sweet turn to leave the Homestead
• Her sweet Weight on my Heart a Night
• Here, where the Daisies fit my Head
• Herein a Blossom lies --
• High from the earth I heard a bird,
• His Bill an Auger is
• His Bill is clasped -- his Eye forsook --
• His Cheek is his Biographer --
• His Feet are shod with Gauze --
• His Heart was darker than the starless night
• His little Hearse like Figure
• His Mansion in the Pool
• His Mind like Fabrics of the East
• His mind of man, a secret makes
• His oriental heresies
• His voice decrepit was with Joy --
• Hope is a strange invention --
• Hope is a subtle Glutton --
• How brittle are the Piers
• How dare the robins sing,
• How destitute is he
• How far is it to Heaven?
• How firm Eternity must look
• How fits his Umber Coat
• How fleet -- how indiscreet an one --
• How fortunate the Grave --
• How good his Lava Bed,
• How happy I was if I could forget
• How happy is the little Stone
• How Human Nature dotes
• How lonesome the Wind must feel Nights --
• How many Flowers fail in Wood
• How many schemes may die
• How many times these low feet staggered
• How much of Source escapes with thee --
• How much the present moment means
• How News must feel when travelling
• How noteless Men, and Pleiads, stand,
• How ruthless are the gentle --
• How sick -- to wait -- in any place -- but thine
• How slow the Wind --
• How soft a Caterpillar steps --
• How soft this Prison is
• How still the Bells in Steeples stand
• How the old Mountains drip with Sunset
• How the Waters closed above Him
• How well I knew Her not
• I am afraid to own a Body --
• I am alive -- I guess
• I am ashamed -- I hide
• I asked no other thing --
• I bet with every Wind that blew
• I breathed enough to take the Trick
• I bring an unaccustomed wine
• I Came to buy a smile -- today
• I can wade Grief
• I cannot be ashamed
• I cannot dance upon my Toes
• I cannot live with You --
• I cannot meet the Spring unmoved --
• I cannot want it more --
• I cautious, scanned my little life
• I could bring You Jewels -- had I a mind to --
• I could die -- to know --
• I could not drink it, Sweet,
• I could not prove the Years had feet --
• I could suffice for Him, I knew --
• I cried at Pity -- not at Pain --
• I cross till I am weary
• I did not reach Thee
• I died for Beauty -- but was scarce
• I dreaded that first Robin, so,
• I dwell in Possibility --
• I envy Seas, whereon He rides
• I fear a Man of frugal Speech --
• I felt a Cleaving in my Mind --
• I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,
• I felt my life with both my hands
• I fit for them --
• I found the words to every thought
• I gained it so
• I gave myself to Him --
• I got so I could take his name
• I groped for him before I knew
• I had a daily Bliss
• I had a guinea golden
• I had been hungry, all the Years --
• I had no Cause to be awake --
• I had no time to Hate
• I had not minded -- Walls
• I had some things that I called mine
• I had the Glory -- that will do
• I have a Bird in spring
• I have a King, who does not speak
• I have never seen "Volcanoes"
• I have no Life but this --
• I heard a Fly buzz -- when I died
• I heard, as if I had no Ear
• I held a Jewel in my fingers
• I hide myself within my flower,
• I keep my pledge.
• I knew that I had gained
• I know a place where Summer strives
• I know lives, I could miss
• I know of people in the Grave
• I know some lonely Houses off the Road
• I know Suspense -- it steps so terse
• I know that He exists.
• I know where Wells grow -- Droughtless Wells
• I learned -- at least -- what Home could be --
• I like a look of Agony,
• I like to see it lap the Miles --
• I live with Him -- I see His face
• I lived on Dread --
• I lost a World -- the other day!
• I made slow Riches but my Gain
• I make His Crescent fill or lack --
• I many times thought Peace had come
• I meant to find Her when I came --
• I meant to have but modest needs
• I measure every Grief I meet
• I met a King this afternoon!
• I never felt at Home -- Below
• I never hear that one is dead
• I never hear the word "escape"
• I never lost as much but twice
• I never saw a Moor --
• I never told the buried gold
• I noticed People disappeared
• I often passed the village
• I pay -- in Satin Cash
• I play at Riches -- to appease
• I prayed, at first, a little Girl,
• I read my sentence -- steadily
• I reason, Earth is short
• I reckon -- when I count it all --
• I robbed the Woods
• I rose -- because He sank --
• I saw no Way -- The Heavens were stitched
• I saw that the Flake was on it
• I saw the wind within her
• I see thee better -- in the Dark --
• I see thee clearer for the Grave
• I send Two Sunsets
• I send you a decrepit flower
• I shall keep singing!
• I shall know why -- when Time is over
• I shall not murmur if at last
• I should have been too glad, I see
• I should not dare to be so sad
• I should not dare to leave my friend,
• I showed her Heights she never saw
• I sing to use the Waiting
• I sometimes drop it, for a Quick --
• I started Early -- Took my Dog --
• I stepped from Plank to Plank
• I stole them from a Bee
• I sued the News -- yet feared -- the News
• I suppose the time will come
• I taste a liquor never brewed
• I tend my flowers for thee
• I think I was enchanted
• I think just how my shape will rise
• I think that the Root of the Wind is Water --
• I think the Hemlock likes to stand
• I think the longest Hour of all
• I think to Live -- may be a Bliss
• I thought that nature was enough
• I thought the Train would never come --
• I tie my Hat -- I crease my Shawl
• I took my Power in my Hand --
• I took one Draught of Life --
• I tried to think a lonelier Thing
• I was a Phoebe -- nothing more --
• I was the slightest in the House
• I watched the Moon around the House
• I watcher her face to see which way
• I went to Heaven
• I went to thank Her
• I worked for chaff and earning Wheat
• I would distil a cup
• I would not paint -- a picture --
• I Years had been from Home
• Ideals are the Fairly Oil
• If all the griefs I am to have
• If any sink, assure that this, now standing
• If Blame be my side -- forfeit Me --
• If ever the lid gets off my head
• If He dissolve -- then
• If He were living -- dare I ask --
• If I can stop one Heart from breaking
• If I could bribe them by a Rose
• If I could tell how glad I was
• If I should cease to bring a Rose
• If I should die,
• If it had no pencil
• If my Bark sink
• If Nature smiles -- the Mother must
• If pain for peace prepares
• If recollecting were forgetting,
• If she had been the Mistletoe
• If the foolish, call them "flowers"
• If this is "fading"
• If those I loved were lost
• If What we could -- were what we would
• If wrecked upon the Shoal of Thought
• If you were coming in the Fall,
• If your Nerve, deny you
• Image of Light, Adieu --
• Immortal is an ample word
• Immured in Heaven!
• Impossibility, like Wine
• In Ebon Box, when years have flown
• In falling Timbers buried --
• In lands I never saw -- they say
• In many and reportless places
• In rags mysterious as these
• In snow thou comest --
• In this short Life
• In thy long Paradise of Light
• In Winter in my Room
• Inconceivably solemn!
• Is Bliss then, such Abyss,
• Is Heaven a Physician?
• Is Immortality a bane
• Is it dead -- Find it
• Is it too late to touch you, Dear?
• Is it true, dear Sue?
• It always felt to me -- a wrong
• It bloomed and dropt, a Single Noon --
• It came at last but prompter Death
• It came his turn to beg --
• It ceased to hurt me, though so slow
• It did not surprise me
• It dropped so low -- in my Regard --
• It feels a shame to be Alive
• It is a lonesome Glee --
• It is an honorable Thought
• It is easy to work when the soul is at play
• It knew no lapse, nor Diminuation --
• It knew no Medicine --
• It makes no difference abroad --
• It might be lonelier
• It rises -- passes -- on our South
• It sifts from Leaden Sieves
• It sounded as if the Streets were running
• It stole along so stealthy
• It struck me -- every Day
• It tossed -- and tossed --
• It troubled me as once I was --
• It was a Grave, yet bore no Stone
• It was a quiet seeming Day --
• It was a quiet way --
• It was given to me by the Gods
• It was not Death, for I stood up,
• It was not Saint -- it was too large --
• It was too late for Man --
• It will be Summer -- eventually.
• It would have starved a Gnat --
• It would never be Common -- more -- I said
• It would not know if it were spurned,
• Its Hour with itself
• Its little Ether Hood
• Jesus! thy Crucifix
• Joy to have merited the Pain --
• Judgment is justest
• Just as He spoke it from his Hands
• Just lost, when I was saved!
• Just O