Emily Dickinson

A first Mute Coming

Summary


"A first Mute Coming" is a compact Emily Dickinson poem that moves between silence and celebration. A stranger's house receives a quiet arrival, a fair departure follows, and bells ring out in the distance. Then comes a mysterious exchange of what has mingled, offered to faith alone. In only a few lines, the poem leaves a hush of wonder and open questions about what passes between two worlds.

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A first Mute Coming—
In the Stranger’s House—
A first fair Going—
When the Bells rejoice—

A woman in white stands at an old house door at dawn, a distant church bell tower beyond, for Emily Dickinson's A first Mute Coming.

A first Exchange—of
What hath mingled—been—
For Lot—exhibited to
Faith—alone—

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Credits

Emily Dickinson was a reclusive 19th-century American poet, famed for her dashes, slant rhymes and strikingly compressed verse. This brief poem shows her habit of packing a whole life's passage into two short stanzas, with capitalized nouns and dashes marking each pause.