Poems: Second Series (Dickinson)/The White Heat

by Emily Dickinson

VII.

THE WHITE HEAT.

DARE you see a soul at the white heat?
     Then crouch within the door.
Red is the fire's common tint;
     But when the vivid ore

Has sated flame's conditions,
    Its quivering substance plays
Without a color but the light
    Of unanointed blaze.

Least village boasts its blacksmith,
    Whose anvil's even din
Stands symbol for the finer forge
    That soundless tugs within,

Refining these impatient ores
    With hammer and with blaze,
Until the designated light
    Repudiate the forge.