Emily Dickinson Lexicon

by-thyme, n. [ME by- + L. < Gr θύεω, to burn sacrifice.]

Herb garden; place of aromatic plants; time when spicy herbs such as thyme are growing; [word play on “by-time” or “bi-time”] mortality; duality; reality; time in the past; (fig.) book of poetry; fascicle of metrical verse.