"SOME KEEP THE SABBATH ...."

"Some keep the Sabbath going to Church –

I keep it, staying at Home –

With a Bobolink for a Chorister –

And an Orchard, for a Dome –"

This is the first stanza or first four lines by Emily Dickinson in a very famous poem appropriate for today, a Sunday or Sabbath Day.   This is how the lines are printed as No. 324, c. 1860, in THE COMPLETE POEMS OF EMILY DICKINSON (Thomas H. Johnson ed., numerous and various ©, Little Brown And Co.).

          Far be it from a fool like me, to borrow from another poet, Mr. Joyce Kilmer, to change anything that a great poet like Emily Dickinson ever wrote, whether the change might come in this review or in any other place.  But I think of the third line as I read this glorious poem to myself today:

With a Cardinal for a Cantor –

          The poem's beauty is unmarred.  Its meaning is unchanged.  Some keep the Sabbath going to Church, I keep it, staying at Home, with a Cardinal for a Cantor, and an Orchard for a Dome.

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