In the two versions of the poems, Dickinson switches between “obstacles of swarthy gold” and “menaces of amethyst.” Amethyst is a purplish color, and I think of precious stones. Gold, closer to yellow, is almost the complementary color to amethyst, which is a juxtaposition that drew my attention. Her thoughts to write down both of these phrases demonstrates to me that she was trying to encapsulate so much, all the wonderful colors of sunset into a few words, and she wasn’t sure which held more meaning to her. Both are precious stones, so there’s this sense of royalty and riches, pertaining to nature; nature’s wealth is displayed at sunset. Since she describes them as obstacles or menaces that either enhance or retard what we see, it makes me think how sunset both continues to light up the world while darkening it. It’s this precious moment each day where darkness creeps upon us, but for many darkness brings creative thoughts, and perhaps this was so for her as well, so maybe she’s representing this feeling of your physical body feeling tired, but your mind and soul opening up to a deeper side that doesn’t always show. This side of us is precious, like gold or amethyst, and it suggests that this side of us is one of the most precious things we have. It makes me also think of yin and yang, these two opposites that are central to life. Lastly, I love how the paper describing gold is almost golden.