1830–188619th century
Emily Dickinson
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. Largely unpublished and unknown during her lifetime, her work is now widely regarded as canonical. The Poetry Foundation describes her as having "created in her writing a distinctively elliptical language for expressing what was possible but not yet realized."
Did you know?
Dickinson rarely left her family home in Amherst, Massachusetts in her later years, often communicating with friends and neighbours only through letters and notes.
Only around ten of her nearly 1,800 poems were published during her lifetime — most without her knowledge or consent, and heavily edited by others.
She had a habit of writing poems on any paper within reach: envelopes, paper bags, and the backs of grocery lists, often stitching small bundles together with thread.
Her unconventional style — slant rhyme, dashes instead of punctuation, irregular capitalisation — puzzled publishers for decades. Her poems weren't published in their original form until 1955, nearly 70 years after her death.
Poems
150 poems- 'Tis One by One -- the Father counts --16 lines
- 'Twas a long Parting -- but the time16 lines
- 'Twas here my summer paused8 lines
- 'Twas just this time, last year, I died.24 lines
- 'Twas later when the summer went8 lines
- "Arcturus" is his other name32 lines
- "Faith" is a fine invention4 lines
- "Heavenly Father" -- take to thee8 lines
- "Hope" is the thing with feathers12 lines
- "Lethe" in my flower,8 lines
- A full fed Rose on meals of Tint8 lines
- A great Hope fell17 lines
- A little Madness in the Spring6 lines
- A loss of something ever felt I --16 lines
- A Murmur in the Trees -- to note20 lines
- A Wife -- at daybreak I shall be13 lines
- A Wind that rose9 lines
- Absent Place -- an April Day --8 lines
- Ah, Moon -- and Star!17 lines
- And this of all my Hopes8 lines
- As if some little Arctic flower12 lines
- As Summer into Autumn slips12 lines
- Bereavement in their death to feel12 lines
- Birthday of but a single pang4 lines
- By a flower -- By a letter8 lines
- By homely gift and hindered Words5 lines
- Could Hope inspect her Basis8 lines
- Declaiming Waters none may dread --4 lines
- Defrauded I a Butterfly --2 lines
- Did life's penurious length8 lines
- Dying at my music!6 lines
- Estranged from Beauty -- none can be --4 lines
- Floss won't save you from an Abyss8 lines
- From all the Jails the Boys and Girls8 lines
- Funny -- to be a Century8 lines
- Further in Summer than the Birds16 lines
- God permits industrious Angels8 lines
- Going to Heaven!27 lines
- Great Streets of silence led away8 lines
- He put the Belt around my life16 lines
- He strained my faith16 lines
- Heaven is so far of the Mind8 lines
- Her final Summer was it --16 lines
- Her sovereign People4 lines
- Her spirit rose to such a height6 lines
- Her Sweet turn to leave the Homestead28 lines
- His Heart was darker than the starless night4 lines
- How happy is the little Stone10 lines
- How Human Nature dotes13 lines
- How know it from a Summer's Day?8 lines
- How many Flowers fail in Wood8 lines
- How much the present moment means8 lines
- How the Waters closed above Him8 lines
- I felt my life with both my hands16 lines
- I know a place where Summer strives12 lines
- I learned -- at least -- what Home could be --31 lines
- I lost a World -- the other day!8 lines
- I many times thought Peace had come8 lines
- I never felt at Home -- Below16 lines
- I noticed People disappeared6 lines
- I prayed, at first, a little Girl,21 lines
- I see thee better -- in the Dark --16 lines
- I tend my flowers for thee27 lines
- I think that the Root of the Wind is Water --8 lines
- I Years had been from Home24 lines
- I've known a Heaven, like a Tent17 lines
- If I could bribe them by a Rose19 lines
- If Nature smiles -- the Mother must4 lines
- If pain for peace prepares12 lines
- Immured in Heaven!5 lines
- In this short Life4 lines
- In Winter in my Room39 lines
- It can't be "Summer"!10 lines
- It will be Summer -- eventually.20 lines
- Just so -- Jesus -- raps11 lines
- Lad of Athens, faithful be4 lines
- Musicians wrestle everywhere18 lines
- My life closed twice before its close --8 lines
- My wheel is in the dark!15 lines
- Nature affects to be sedate8 lines
- Nature assigns the Sun --4 lines
- Nature can do no more8 lines
- No Romance sold unto6 lines
- Not at Home to Callers4 lines
- Now I knew I lost her --20 lines
- Of Life to own --3 lines
- Oh Future! thou secreted peace8 lines
- On this long storm the Rainbow rose12 lines
- One Year ago -- jots what?6 lines
- Pain -- expands the Time --8 lines
- Pain -- has an Element of Blank --8 lines
- Pain has but one Acquaintance8 lines
- Rearrange a "Wife's" affection!20 lines
- Remorse -- is Memory -- awake --12 lines
- Said Death to Passion9 lines
- She rose as high as His Occasion4 lines
- She rose to His Requirement -- dropt12 lines
- She's happy, with a new Content --8 lines
- Snow beneath whose chilly softness8 lines
- Snow flakes.9 lines
- So give me back to Death --8 lines
- So much of Heaven has gone from Earth12 lines
- So much Summer11 lines
- Some, too fragile for winter winds12 lines
- Success is counted sweetest12 lines
- Summer begins to have the look16 lines
- Summer for thee, grant I may be9 lines
- Summer laid her simple Hat8 lines
- Suspense -- is Hostiler than Death --8 lines
- Than Heaven more remote,16 lines
- The Butterfly upon the Sky,8 lines
- The Butterfly's Numidian Gown6 lines
- The Fact that Earth is Heaven --8 lines
- The first Day that I was a Life16 lines
- The Heaven vests for Each16 lines
- The inundation of the Spring8 lines
- The Life we have is very great.8 lines
- The Mountain sat upon the Plain8 lines
- The name -- of it -- is "Autumn" --12 lines
- The Notice that is called the Spring8 lines
- The One who could repeat the Summer day9 lines
- The Snow that never drifts --16 lines
- The Stars are old, that stood for me --8 lines
- The stem of a departed Flower4 lines
- The words the happy say4 lines
- Their Height in Heaven comforts not --16 lines
- There is a flower that Bees prefer32 lines
- They shut me up in Prose --12 lines
- Tho' I get home how late -- how late13 lines
- Though the great Waters sleep,6 lines
- Through the Dark Sod -- as Education8 lines
- To tell the Beauty would decrease8 lines
- Trusty as the stars8 lines
- Twice had Summer her fair Verdure8 lines
- Undue Significance a starving man attaches9 lines
- Water makes many Beds8 lines
- We dream -- it is good we are dreaming --16 lines
- We grow accustomed to the Dark20 lines
- We should not mind so small a flower12 lines
- We thirst at first -- 'tis Nature's Act --8 lines
- What shall I do when the Summer troubles --16 lines
- Whatever it is -- she has tried it --12 lines
- When Memory is full4 lines
- Where Thou art -- that -- is Home --14 lines
- Which is best? Heaven --9 lines
- Which is the best -- the Moon or the Crescent?8 lines
- Who were "the Father and the Son"24 lines
- Witchcraft was hung, in History,8 lines
- Yesterday is History,8 lines
- You see I cannot see -- your lifetime15 lines