I won't claim that Emily Dickinson's poem was the conscious inspiration for my piece "How the Sun Rose," but I am sure it was "working" in my subconscious.
I'll tell you how the Sun rose --
A ribbon at a time --
The steeples swam in Amethyst,
The news, like Squirrels, ran --
The Hills untied their Bonnets --
The Bobolinks -- begun
Then I said softly to myself
"That must have been the Sun!"
But how he set -- I know not --
There seemed a purple stile
That little yellow boys and girls
Were climbing all the while --
Till when they reached the other side
A Dominie in Gray --
Put gently up the evening Bars
And led the flock away.
A ribbon at a time --
The steeples swam in Amethyst,
The news, like Squirrels, ran --
The Hills untied their Bonnets --
The Bobolinks -- begun
Then I said softly to myself
"That must have been the Sun!"
But how he set -- I know not --
There seemed a purple stile
That little yellow boys and girls
Were climbing all the while --
Till when they reached the other side
A Dominie in Gray --
Put gently up the evening Bars
And led the flock away.