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Emily Dickinson

  • I never saw a moor, / I never saw the sea, / Yet I know how the heather looks, / And what a wave must be.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • in Mabel Loomis Todd and Thomas Wentworth Higginson, eds., Poems, 1st series ()
  • There's a certain slant of light, / on winter Afternoons — / That oppresses, like the weight / Of cathedral tunes.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • in Mabel Loomis Todd and Thomas Wentworth Higginson, eds., Poems, 1st series ()
  • Ourself behind ourself concealed / Should startle most.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • in Mabel Loomis Todd and Thomas Wentworth Higginson, eds., Poems, 2nd series ()
  • The Brain — is wider than the Sky.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • in Mabel Loomis Todd and Thomas Wentworth Higginson, eds., Poems, 3rd series ()
  • How very sad it is to have a confiding nature, one's hopes and feelings are quite at the mercy of all who come along; and how very desirable to be a stolid individual, whose hopes and aspirations are safe in one's waistcoat pocket, and that a pocket indeed, and one not to be picked!

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • 1852, in Mabel Loomis Todd, ed., Letters of Emily Dickinson, vol. 1 ()
  • The hearts that never lean, must fall.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • 1881, in Mabel Loomis Todd, ed., Letters of Emily Dickinson, vol. 1 ()
  • My friends are my estate.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • 1858, in Mabel Loomis Todd, ed., Letters of Emily Dickinson, vol. 1 ()
  • Till it has loved, no man or woman can become itself.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • 1879, in Mabel Loomis Todd, ed., Letters of Emily Dickinson, vol. 2 ()
  • No one has called so far, but one old lady to look at a house. I directed her to the cemetery to spare expense of moving.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • 1863, in Mabel Loomis Todd, ed., Letters of Emily Dickinson, vol. 2 ()
  • It is not dying hurts us so, — / 'T is living hurts us more ...

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • 1864, in Mabel Loomis Todd, ed., Letters of Emily Dickinson, vol. 2 ()
  • A word is dead when it is said, some say. I say it just begins to live that day.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • 1872, in Mabel Loomis Todd, ed., Letters of Emily Dickinson, vol. 2 ()
  • Experiment has a stimulus which withers its fear.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1872, in Mabel Loomis Todd, ed., Letters of Emily Dickinson, vol. 2 ()
  • Life is so rotatory that the wilderness falls to each, sometime.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • 1873, in Mabel Loomis Todd, ed., Letters of Emily Dickinson, vol. 2 ()
  • We turn not older with years, but newer every day.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • 1874, in Mabel Loomis Todd, ed., Letters of Emily Dickinson, vol. 2 ()
  • We must be careful what we say. No bird resumes its egg.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • 1874, in Mabel Loomis Todd, ed., Letters of Emily Dickinson, vol. 2 ()
  • The career of flowers differs from ours only in inaudibleness.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • (1874), in Mabel Loomis Todd, ed., Letters of Emily Dickinson, vol. 2 ()
  • It is true that the unknown is the largest need of the intellect, though for it, no one thinks to thank God.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • 1876, in Mabel Loomis Todd, ed., Letters of Emily Dickinson, vol. 2 ()
  • How softly summer shuts, without the creaking of a door ...

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • 1880, in Mabel Loomis Todd, ed., Letters of Emily Dickinson, vol. 2 ()
  • A letter always feels to me like Immortality because it is the mind alone without corporeal friend.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • 1882, in Mabel Loomis Todd, ed., Letters of Emily Dickinson, vol. 2 ()
  • Spring's first conviction is a wealth beyond its whole experience.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • 1883, in Mabel Loomis Todd, ed., Letters of Emily Dickinson, vol. 2 ()
  • Truth is such a rare thing, it is delightful to tell it.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • 1870, in Mabel Loomis Todd, ed., Letters of Emily Dickinson, vol. 2 ()
  • If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way?

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • 1870, in Mabel Loomis Todd, ed., Letters of Emily Dickinson, vol. 2 ()
  • To live is so startling, it leaves but little room for other occupations ...

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • 1871, in Mabel Loomis Todd, ed., Letters of Emily Dickinson, vol. 2 ()
  • These behaviors of the year hurt almost like music, shifting when it eases us most.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • 1871, in Mabel Loomis Todd, ed., Letters of Emily Dickinson, vol. 2 ()
  • His heart was pure and terrible, and I think no other like it exists.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • 1874, in Mabel Loomis Todd, ed., Letters of Emily Dickinson, vol. 2 ()
  • I felt it shelter to speak to you.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • 1878, in Mabel Loomis Todd, ed., Letters of Emily Dickinson, vol. 2 ()
  • To multiply the harbors does not reduce the sea.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1870, in Mabel Loomis Todd, ed., Letters of Emily Dickinson, vol. 2 ()
  • Home is the definition of God.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • 1870, in Mabel Loomis Todd, ed., Letters of Emily Dickinson, vol. 2 ()
  • The past is not a package one can lay away.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1883, in Mabel Loomis Todd, ed., Letters of Emily Dickinson, vol. 2 ()
  • The friend anguish reveals is the slowest forgot.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1882, in Mabel Loomis Todd, ed., Letters of Emily Dickinson, vol. 2 ()
  • ... a sick room is at times too sacred a place for a friend's knock, timid as that is.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1883, in Mabel Loomis Todd, ed., Letters of Emily Dickinson, vol. 2 ()
  • The red leaves take the green leaves' place, and the landscape yields. We go to sleep with the peach in our hands and wake with the stone, but the stone is the pledge of summers to come.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1874, in Mabel Loomis Todd, ed., Letters of Emily Dickinson, vol. 2 ()
  • I think Heaven will not be as good as earth, unless it bring with it that sweet power to remember, which is the staple of Heaven here.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • 1879, in Mabel Loomis Todd, ed., Letters of Emily Dickinson, vol. 2 ()
  • I hope you love birds, too. It is economical. It saves going to Heaven.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • 1885, in Mabel Loomis Todd, ed., Letters of Emily Dickinson, vol. 2 ()
  • [On the loss of Mary's third child:] Don't cry, dear Mary. Let us do that for you, because you are too tired now. We don't know how dark it is, but if you are at sea, perhaps when we say that we are there, you won't be as afraid. The waves are very big, but every one that covers you, covers us, too. Dear Mary, you can't see us, but we are close at your side.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1860, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Letters of Emily Dickinson, vol. 1 ()
  • Dying is a wild Night and a new Road.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • to Perez Cowan (1869), in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Letters of Emily Dickinson, vol. 2 ()
  • Common sense is almost as omniscient as God.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Letters of Emily Dickinson, vol. 3 ()
  • ... it is cold tonight, but the thought of you so warm, that I sit by it as a fireside, and am never cold any more. I love to write to you — it gives my heart a holiday and sets the bells to ringing.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • in Mabel Loomis Todd, ed., The Letters of Emily Dickinson 1845-1886 ()
  • How do most people live without any thoughts? There are many people in the world, — you must have noticed them in the street, — how do they live? How do they get strength to put on their clothes in the morning?

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • in Mabel Loomis Todd, ed., The Letters of Emily Dickinson 1845-1886 ()
  • Publication is the auction / Of the Mind of Man.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • in Mabel Loomis Todd, ed., The Letters of Emily Dickinson 1845-1886 ()
  • ... God's unique capacity is too surprising to surprise.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • in Mabel Loomis Todd, ed., The Letters of Emily Dickinson 1845-1886 ()
  • The older I grow the more do I love spring and spring flowers. Is it so with you?

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • in Mabel Loomis Todd, ed., The Letters of Emily Dickinson 1845-1886 ()
  • We never know how high we are / Till we are called to rise; / And then, if we are true to plan, / Our statures touch the skies.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • in Mabel Loomis Todd, ed., The Letters of Emily Dickinson 1845-1886 ()
  • To lose what we have never owned might seem an eccentric bereavement, but Presumption has its own affliction as well as claim.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • in Martha Dickinson Bianchi, ed., The Life and Letters of Emily Dickinson ()
  • The things of which we want the proof are those we know the best.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • in Martha Dickinson Bianchi, ed., The Life and Letters of Emily Dickinson ()
  • I miss the grasshoppers much, but suppose it is all for the best. I should become too much attached to a trotting world.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • 1861, in Martha Dickinson Bianchi, ed., The Life and Letters of Emily Dickinson ()
  • The moon rides like a girl through a topaz town.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • 1862, in Martha Dickinson Bianchi, ed., The Life and Letters of Emily Dickinson ()
  • So few that live have life ...

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • 1862, in Martha Dickinson Bianchi, ed., The Life and Letters of Emily Dickinson ()
  • I find ecstasy in living; the mere sense of living is joy enough.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • 1870, in Martha Dickinson Bianchi, ed., The Life and Letters of Emily Dickinson ()
  • ... I have no letter from the dead, yet daily love them more.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • 1872, in Martha Dickinson Bianchi, ed., The Life and Letters of Emily Dickinson ()
  • Longing, it may be, is the gift no other gift supplies.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • 1874, in Martha Dickinson Bianchi, ed., The Life and Letters of Emily Dickinson ()
  • Life is a spell so exquisite that everything conspires to break it.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • 1874, in Martha Dickinson Bianchi, ed., The Life and Letters of Emily Dickinson ()
  • Good times are always mutual; that is what makes good times.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • 1876, in Martha Dickinson Bianchi, ed., The Life and Letters of Emily Dickinson ()
  • The power to console is not within corporeal reach — though its attempt is precious.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • 1879, in Martha Dickinson Bianchi, ed., The Life and Letters of Emily Dickinson ()
  • I must go in, the fog is rising.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • the last words she wrote, in Martha Dickinson Bianchi, ed., The Life and Letters of Emily Dickinson ()
  • Faith is the pierless bridge supporting what we see / Unto the scene that we do not, / Too slender for the eye.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • in Martha Dickinson Bianchi and Alfred Leete Hampson, eds., Further Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • Beauty is not caused. It is.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • in Martha Dickinson Bianchi and Alfred Leete Hampson, eds., Further Poems of Emily Dickinson1929 ()
  • It might have been lonelier / Without the loneliness.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • in Martha Dickinson Bianchi and Alfred Leete Hampson, eds., Unpublished Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • Love can do all but raise the Dead.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • in Mabel Loomis Todd and Millicent Todd Bingham, eds., Bolts of Melody: New Poems ()
  • Spring is the Period / Express from God.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • in Mabel Loomis Todd and Millicent Todd Bingham, eds., Bolts of Melody: New Poems ()
  • Great Hungers feed themselves, but little Hungers ail in vain.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • 1880, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Letters of Emily Dickinson, vol. 3 ()
  • Time is short and full, like an outgrown Frock — .

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • 1880, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Letters of Emily Dickinson, vol. 3 ()
  • Action is redemption.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • 1881, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Letters of Emily Dickinson, vol. 3 ()
  • ... Memory is a strange Bell --

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • 1882, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Letters of Emily Dickinson, vol. 3 ()
  • To die before one fears to die may be a boon.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Letters of Emily Dickinson, vol. 3 ()
  • The appetite for silence is seldom an acquired taste.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Letters of Emily Dickinson, vol. 3 ()
  • The Infinite a sudden Guest / Has been assumed to be — / But how can that stupendous come / Which never went away?

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • 1874, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • 'Tis sweet to know that stocks will stand / When we with Daisies lie — / That Commerce will continue — / And Trades as briskly fly --.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1858, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • Success is counted sweetest / By those who ne'er succeed.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1859, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • Surgeons must be very careful / When they take the knife! / Underneath their fine incisions / Stirs the Culprit — Life!

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1859, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • For each ecstatic instant / We must an anguish pay / In keen and quivering ratio / To the ecstasy.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1859, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • A wounded Deer — leaps highest — ...

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1860, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • 'Faith' is a fine invention / When Gentlemen can see — / But microscopes are prudent / In an Emergency.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1860, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • Wild Nights — Wild Nights! / Were I with thee / Wild Nights should be / Our luxury!

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1861, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • Rowing in Eden — / Ah, the Sea! / Might I but moor — Tonight — / In Thee!

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1861, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • 'Hope' is the thing with feathers — / That perches in the soul — / And sings the tune without the words — / And never stops at all — .

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1861, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • Looking at Death, is Dying — ...

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1861, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • I'm Nobody! Who are you? / Are you — Nobody — Too? / Then there's a pair of us? / Don't tell! they'd advertise — you know.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1861, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • How dreary — to be — Somebody! / How public — like a Frog-- / To tell one's name — the livelong June — / To an admiring Bog!

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1861, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • The Soul selects her own Society — / Then — shuts the Door — / To her divine Majority — / Present no more — .

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1862, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • The Soul's Superior instants / Occur to Her — alone — / When friend — and Earth's occasion / Have infinite withdrawn — ...

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1862, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • Some keep the Sabbath going to Church — / I keep it, staying at Home — / With a Bobolink for a Chorister — / And an Orchard, for a Dome — ...

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1860, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • After great pain, a formal feeling comes — / ... / This is the Hour of Lead — / Remembered, if outlived, / As Freezing persons, recollect the Snow — / First — Chill — then Stupor — then the letting go — .

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1862, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • I felt my life with both my hands / To see if it was there — ...

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1862, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • Of Course — I prayed — / And did God Care?

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1862, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • This is my letter to the World / That never write to Me — ...

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1862, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • This World is not Conclusion. / A Species stands beyond — / Invisible, as Music — / But positive, as Sound.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1862, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • The Heart asks Pleasure — first — / And then — Excuse from Pain-- / And then — those little Anodynes / That deaden suffering — / And then — to go to sleep — / And then — if it should be / The will of its Inquisitor / The privilege to die — .

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1862, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • I fear a Man of frugal Speech — / I fear a Silent Man — / Haranguer — I can over take — / Or Babbler — entertain — / But He who weigheth — While the Rest — / Expend their further pound — / Of this Man — I am wary — / I fear that He is Grand — .

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1862, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • ... 'till I loved / I never lived — Enough — .

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1862, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • I measure every Grief I meet / With narrow, probing, Eyes — / I wonder if It weighs like Mine — / Or has an Easier size.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1862, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • I could not prove the Years had feet — / Yet confident they run ...

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1862, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • Pain — has an Element of Blank — / It cannot recollect / When it begun — or if there were / A time when it was not — .

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1862, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • I dwell in Possibility — / A fairer House than Prose — / More numerous of Windows — / Superior — for Doors --.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1862, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • Time is a Test of Trouble — / But not a Remedy — / If such it prove, it prove too / There was no Malady --.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1863, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • 'Tis Dying — I am doing — but / I'm not afraid to know — .

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1863, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • Because I could not stop for Death — / He kindly stopped for me — / The Carriage held but just Ourselves — / And Immortality.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1863, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • To wait an Hour — is long — / If Love be just beyond — / To wait Eternity — is short-- / If Love reward the end --.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1863, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • Truth — is as old as God — ...

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1864, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • Love — is anterior to Life — / Posterior — to Death — ...

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1864, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • If I can stop one Heart from breaking / I shall not live in vain / If I can ease one Life the Aching / Or cool one Pain / Or help one fainting Robin / Unto his Nest again / I shall not live in Vain.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1864, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • Noon — is the Hinge of Day — ...

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1864, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • I felt a Cleaving in my Mind — / As if my Brain had split — / I tried to match it — Seam by Seam — / But could not make them fit.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1864, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • Not to discover weakness is / The Artifice of strength — ...

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1865, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • The Soul should always stand ajar ...

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1865, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • The Lightning is a yellow Fork / From Tables in the sky / By inadvertent fingers dropt / The awful Cutlery ...

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1870, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • A prompt — executive Bird is the Jay — / Bold as a Bailiff's Hymn — / Brittle and Brief in quality — / Warrant in every line — / Sitting a Bough like a Brigadier / Confident and straight — / Much is the mien of him in March / As a Magistrate — .

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1865, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • The Bustle in a House / The Morning after Death / Is solemnest of industries / Enacted upon earth — / The Sweeping up the Heart / And putting Love away / We shall not want to use again / Until Eternity.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1866, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • Tell all the Truth but tell it slant — / Success in Circuit lies / Too bright for our infirm Delight / The Truth's superb surprise.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1868, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • The Truth must dazzle gradually / Or every man be blind --.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1868, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • There is no Frigate like a Book / To take us Lands away ...

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1873, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • ... A little Madness in the Spring / Is wholesome even for the King.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1875, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • Luck is not chance — / It's Toil — / Fortune's expensive smile / Is earned — ...

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1875, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • Dreams are the subtle Dower / That make us rich an Hour — / Then fling us poor / Out of the purple Door ...

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1876, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • Hope is a strange invention — / A Patent of the Heart — / In unremitting action / Yet never wearing out-- ...

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1877, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • Bees are Black, with Gilt Surcingles — / Buccaneers of Buzz.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1877, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • Anger as soon as fed is dead — / 'Tis starving makes it fat — .

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1881, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • Pass to thy Rendezvous of Light, / Pangless except for us — / Who slowly ford the Mystery / Which thou has leaped across!

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1883, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • A Letter is a joy of Earth — / It is denied the Gods — .

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • c. 1865, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • Eden is that old-fashioned House / We dwell in every day / Without suspecting our abode / Until we drive away.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • Fame is a fickle food / Upon a shifting plate.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • Autumn begins to be inferred / By millinery of the cloud / Or deeper color in the shawl / That wraps the everlasting hill.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • The Possible's slow fuse is lit / By the Imagination.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • Unto a broken heart / No other one may go / Without the high prerogative / Itself hath suffered too.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • The second half of joy / Is shorter than the first.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • The truth I do not dare to know / I muffle with a jest.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • 1895, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • I took one Draught of Life — / I'll tell you what I paid — / Precisely an existence — / The market price, they said.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • Parting is all we know of heaven, / And all we need of hell.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • 1896, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • That it will never come again / Is what makes life so sweet.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • 1895, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • The distance that the dead have gone / Does not at first appear — / Their coming back seems possible / For many an ardent year.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • 1896, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee, / One clover, and a bee, / And revery. / The revery alone will do, / If bees are few.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • 1896, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • Fame is a bee. / It has a song — / It has a sting — / Ah, too, it has a wing.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • 1898, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • That love is all there is, / Is all we know of Love ...

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • 1914, in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • Drunkards of summer are quite as frequent as Drunkards of wine.

    • Emily Dickinson
  • Nothing more do I ask than to share with you the ecstasy and sacrament of my life.

    • Emily Dickinson
  • When it is too late for man / It's early yet for God.

    • Emily Dickinson
  • They might not need me — yet they might; / I'll let my heart be just in sight. / A smile so small as mine might be / Precisely their necessity.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Poems of Emily Dickinson ()
  • You ask of my companions. Hills, sir, and the sundown, and a dog as large as myself that my father bought me. They are better than human beings, because they know but do not tell.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Letters of Emily Dickinson ()
  • I'll tell you how the sun rose,-- / a ribbon at a time.

    • Emily Dickinson,
    • in Mabel Loomis Todd and Thomas Wentworth Higginson, eds., Poems, 1st series ()

Emily Dickinson, U.S. poet

(1830 - 1886)

Full name: Emily Elizabeth Dickinson