Emily Dickinson
Revolutionary American poet of interiority
Most quoted
"The Robin’s my Criterion for Tune – Because I grow – where Robins do – But, were I Cuckoo born – I’d swear by him – The ode familiar – rules the Noon – The Buttercup’s, my Whim for Bloom – Because, we’re Orchard sprung – But, were I Britain born, I’d Daisies spurn – None but the Nut – October fit – Because, through dropping it, The Seasons flit – I’m taught – Without the Snow’s Tableau Winter, were lie – to me – Because I had not seen it go – But, this – makes not the Robin poor – Nor, of the Nut, deprive the Jay – Because the seasons flit away –"
— from Poem 347, 1862
"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 way I know it. Is there any other way?"
— from Letter to Thomas Wentworth Higginson
"I’m ceded – I’ve stopped being Theirs – The name They dropped upon my face With water, in the country church Is finished using, now, And They can put it with my Dolls, My childhood, and the string of spools, I’ve finished threading – too –"
— from Poem 508, 1862
All quotes by Emily Dickinson (267)
I dwell in Possibility - A fairer House than Prose - More numerous of Windows - Superior - for Doors -
The Soul selects her own Society - Then - shuts the Door - To her divine Majority - Present no more -
Much Madness is divinest Sense - To a discerning Eye - Much Sense - the starkest Madness - 'Tis the Majority In this, as all, prevail - Assent - and you are sane - Demur - you're straightway dangerous - And handled with a Chain -
Fame is a fickle food Upon a shifting plate Whose table once a Guest is set But not again is passed.
This is my letter to the World That never wrote to Me - The simple News that Nature told - With tender Majesty
There is no Frigate like a Book To take us Lands away Nor any Coursers like a Page Of prancing Poetry -
The pedigree of Honey Does not concern the Bee - A Clover, any time, to him, Is Aristocracy -
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 -
To see the Summer Sky Is Poetry, though in a word, it lie.
The Heart asks Pleasure - first - And then - Excuse from Pain - And then - those little Anodynes That deaden suffering -
Presentiment - is that long Shadow - on the Lawn - Indicative that Suns go down - The Notice to the startled Grass That Darkness - is about to pass -
The Truth must dazzle gradually Or every man be blind -
A solemn thing - it was - I said - A Woman - white - to be - And wear - if God should count me fit - Her Sacrament - with me -
The Soul's Superior instants Occur to Her - as if A Child that just had tasted pink - Were told it was a Verb -
The only Ghost I ever saw Was dressed in Mechlin lace; He wore a crimson frolic; I owned a violet face.
Crisis is a Hair - that splits the Hour - and holds it separate -
The Heaven hath a Hell - as Earth a Heaven -
The Missing All - prevented Me From missing minor Things.
The World - feels dusty When We stop to Die - We want the Dew - then -
To be alive - is Power - Existence - in itself - Without a further function - Omnipotence - Enough -
Contemporaries of Emily Dickinson
Other Literatures born within 50 years of Emily Dickinson (1830–1886).