Exclusion (The soul selects her own society)

By Emily Dickinson

The soul selects her own society,

   Then shuts the door;

   On her divine majority

   Obtrude no more.

   Unmoved, she notes the chariot's pausing

   At her low gate;

   Unmoved, an emperor is kneeling

   Upon her mat.

   I've known her from an ample nation

  Choose one

  Then close the valves of her attention

  Like stone.

Composition Date: ca. 1862.Form: abcb (off-rhyme)3. On: the existing manuscript version of poem 303, The Manuscript Books of Emily Dickinson, edited by R. W. Franklin in two volumes (Cambridge, Mass., and London: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1981: I, 450\; PS 1541 A1 1981 ROBA), reads "To".4. Obtrude: the existing manuscript version reads "Present".5. chariot's: the existing manuscript version reads "chariots".7. is: the existing manuscript version reads "be".