"Great Streets of silence led away"

By Emily Dickinson
[Analysis]
Great Streets of silence led away [1]
To Neighborhoods of Pause -- [2]
Here was no Notice -- no Dissent [3]
No Universe -- no laws -- [4]
By Clocks, 'twas Morning, and for Night [5]
The Bells at Distance called -- [6]
But Epoch had no basis here [7]
For Period exhaled. [8]
Poem 1159 [F1166]
"Great Streets of silence led away"
Analysis by David Preest
[Poem]
This poem ended a letter (L339) to her cousins. It as prefaced by the words, 'Did you know about Mrs. J -- ? She fledged her antique
wings. Tis said that "nothing in her life became her like the leaving it."
It is not known who Mrs J -- was, but Emily describes for her cousins the Eternity in which she is now living. Unlike earth with its alarum
clocks for morning and its church bells for night, Eternity is timeless with no 'Epochs' or 'Period' and can only be imagined spatially as
'Streets' and 'Neighbourhoods.'
The quotation in the letter is used of the Thane of Cawdor (Macbeth 1:4:7-7)
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