As if I asked a common alms -

As if I asked a common alms -
And in my wondering hand,
A stranger pressed a kingdom -
And I - bewildered stand -
As if I asked the Orient
Had it for me a morn?
And it sh’d lift it’s purple dikes
And flood me with the Dawn!

Emily Dickinson

A gleam of light before dawn

I asked common alms in the dark-
A stranger lit up the landscape
So brightly around me -
And I stand surprised -
Thou I only asked the Orient,
Did it mishear the East?
And it should lift its purple mounds
And flood me with the Dawn!

Today Emily is a beggar in the dark. A generous stranger (a gleam of light) gives her a kingdom (sunny world).