A solemn thing — it was — I said —

A solemn thing — it was — I said —
A woman — white — to be —
And wear — if God should count me fit —
Her blameless mystery —

A hallowed thing — to drop a life
Into the purple well —
Too plummetless — that it return —
Eternity — until —

I pondered how the bliss would look —
And would it feel as big —
When I could take it in my hand —
As hovering — seen — through fog —

And then — the size of this “small” life —
The Sages — call it small —
Swelled — like Horizons — in my vest —
And I sneered — softly — “small”!

Emily Dickinson

At first I inferred a carnivorous plant from “To drop a life into the purple well”. However, I failed to find a carnivorous plant of noble color, e.g. white or purple. I remembered a digitalis aka foxglove, which looked like a carnivorous plant and that poisonous, sometime lethal. The author sneered at sages’ opinion “It is small”. Digitalis is so poisonous and deep that a life in the purple well cannot climb back alive. Digitalis (purple well) return eternity (death).

In simple English

I said it was a solemn thing
To be a white woman
And wear her innocent mystery
If God should regard me fit —

It was a sacred thing to drop a life
Into the purple well
Too fathomless that it return
Eternity —

Until I pondered how the joy would look 
And would it feel as big,
When I could take it in my hand
It was seen as hovering through fog —

And then the size of this “small” life.
The Sages call it small
Which was swelled like Horizons in my breast,
And I sneered softly “small”!