Emily Dickinson Lexicon

circle, n. [OE < L. circ-us, a round, a ring; see circuit and circumference.] (webplay: circumference).

Compass; circuit; orbit; geometric figure comprehended by a single curved line of circumference; plane in which every exterior point is equally distant from its center point; [metaphor] cycle of time; path of a planet or heavenly body; perpetual journey which ends where it begins; [rhetoric] circumlocution; inconclusive argument; indirect form of words; [fig.] cyclic poet; strolling minstrel; poet who goes around from place to place.