Exclusion (The soul selects her own society)
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".