Emily Dickinson — The Farthest Thunder That I Heard

The farthest thunder that I heard    Was nearer than the sky, And rumbles still, though torrid noons    Have lain their missiles by. The lightning that preceded it    Struck no one but myself, But I would not exchange the bolt    For all the rest of life. Indebtedness to oxygen    The chemist may repay, But not the obligation    To electricity. It founds the homes and decks the days,    And every clamor bright Is but the gleam concomitant    Of that waylaying light. The thought is quiet as a flake, —    A crash without a sound; How life's reverberation    Its explanation found!