Сочись,- Эдем!-
в неискушённость рта, -
что пьёт пчелой жасмины -
в слабости стыда, -
поздно вняв цветенье, -
стоном обведя, -
чтёт меды, - в бальзамах
канув, чуть войдя.
[Ruth Miller, while admitting the sensuous
imagery of this poem, believes that the Eden
which Emily is asking to come slowly is the
acceptance of her poems for publication.
Like the fainting bee, she has almost given up
hope of her goal, but to reach it would be
to be ‘lost in Balms.’
But most scholars take the poem to be sexual
in content as well as in imagery.
Emily, aged twenty-nine and possibly with
no full sexual experience to that time, asks
for that particular Eden to come slowly,
if and when it comes. Paula Bennett believes
that the poet is envisaging Lesbian
love-making in the second stanza, but Emily is
only envisaging her Eden as being subject
to the same delay as the fainting bee
experiences in ‘reaching late his flower.’]
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Come slowly -- Eden! by Emily Dickinson
Come slowly -- Eden!
Lips unused to Thee --
Bashful -- sip thy Jessamines --
As the fainting Bee --
Reaching late his flower,
Round her chamber hums --
Counts his nectars -- Enters --
and is lost in Balms.