Одной - ни явь, ни сон...
Гостит хозяев сонм...
Толкутся, целый полк...
Кто, чьи - не в толк...
Им ни имён, ни лиц...
Ни стран, ни дней таблиц...
Лишь общность мест
словец...
Знаком их явный свет
посланникам в душе...
Им не уйти, вошед...
Ведь им исхода - нет...
(Во второй строфе Эмили обыгрывает два слова:
- "гном" - фантастическое существо.., обитающее в недрах...
(читай "внутри неё самой");
- "гнома" - правило мудрости, "высказывание общего характера"(по Аристотелю),
народная житейская мудрость, поговорка, крылатое выражение, афоризм,
или проще - меткое словцо.
Остальное - у Дэвида Приста:
[The hosts who visit Emily are the angels of poetic inspiration.
She cannot name or describe them or say where they come from.
She has no key to their identity, but her own artistic spirit,
her ‘Couriers within,’ recognise their presence and they are always
with her. These ‘Visitors – the fairest’ are also mentioned
in line 9 of poem 657.
Lines 7-8 are difficult. We would expect a ‘Gnome’ to be a dwarf.
But it is also the ancient Greek word for an aphorism or maxim,
and, when in February 1863 Emily sent a short letter (L280)
to Thomas Higginson which contained two aphorisms of two lines each,
she signed herself ‘Your Gnome,’ or ‘Your poet who specialises in
aphorisms.’ This explanation fits the poem, as gnomes such as these
do only have ‘general homes.’
The aphorisms in the letter appear in Johnson as poems 684 and 685.]
**************************************
Alone, I cannot be by Emily Dickinson
Alone, I cannot be --
For Hosts -- do visit me --
Recordless Company --
Who baffle Key --
They have no Robes, nor Names --
No Almanacs -- nor Climes --
But general Homes
Like Gnomes --
Their Coming, may be known
By Couriers within --
Their going -- is not --
For they've never gone --