Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson was an American poet who, despite the fact that less than a dozen of her nearly eighteen hundred poems were published during her lifetime, is widely considered one of the most original and influential poets of the 19th century.
Dickinson was born to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life. After she studied at the Amherst Academy for seven years in her youth, she spent a short time at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary before returning to her family's house in Amherst. Thought of as an eccentric by the locals, she became known for her penchant for white clothing and her reluctance to greet guests or, later in life, even leave her room. Most of her friendships were therefore carried out by correspondence.
Although Dickinson was a prolific private poet, fewer than a dozen of her nearly eighteen hundred poems were published during her lifetime.The work that was published during her lifetime was usually altered significantly by the publishers to fit the conventional poetic rules of the time. Dickinson's poems are unique for the era in which she wrote; they contain short lines, typically lack titles, and often use slant rhyme as well as unconventional capitalization and punctuation.Many of her poems deal with themes of death and immortality, two recurring topics in letters to her friends.
Although most of her acquaintances were probably aware of Dickinson's writing, it was not until after her death in 1886—when Lavinia, Emily's younger sister, discovered her cache of poems—that the breadth of Dickinson's work became apparent. Her first collection of poetry was published in 1890 by personal acquaintances Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd, both of whom heavily edited the content.
A complete and mostly unaltered collection of her poetry became available for the first time in 1955 when The Poems of Emily Dickinson was published by scholar Thomas H. Johnson. Despite unfavorable reviews and skepticism of her literary prowess during the late 19th and early 20th century, critics now consider Dickinson to be a major American poet.
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“Expectation is contentment - Gain satiety. ”
“If you were coming in the fall,I'd brush the summer by,With half a smile and half a spurn,As housewives do a fly.If I could see you in a year,I'd wind the months in balls,And put them each in separate drawers,Until their time befalls.”
“Softened by Time's consummate plush,How sleek the woe appearsThat threatened childhood's citadelAnd undermined the years! Bisected now by bleaker griefs,We envy the despair That devastated childhood's realm, So easy to repair.”
“A wounded dear leaps the highest”
“Apparently with no surpriseTo any happy FlowerThe Frost beheads it at its play --In accidental power --The blonde Assassin passes on --The Sun proceeds unmovedTo measure off another DayFor an Approving God.”
“I NEVER lost as much but twice, And that was in the sod; Twice have I stood a beggar Before the door of God! Angels, twice descending,Reimbursed my store. Burglar, banker, father, I am poor once more!”
“This quiet Dust was Gentlemen and Ladies, And Lads and Girls;Was laughter and ability and sighing,And frocks and curls.This passive place a Summer's nimble mansion,Where Bloom and BeesFulfilled their Oriental Circuit,Then ceased like these.”
“My best Acquaintances are thoseWith Whom I spoke no Word”
“My love for those I love -- not many -- not very many, but don't I love them so?”
“My life closed twice before its close; It yet remains to seeIf Immortality unveil A third event to me,So huge, so hopeless to conceive, As these that twice befell.Parting is all we know of heaven, And all we need of hell.”
“They say that God is everywhere and yet we always think of him as somewhat of a recluse.”
“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. ”
“Anger as soon as fed is dead- 'Tis starving makes it fat. ”
“Heart, we will forget him,You and I, tonight!You must forget the warmth he gave,I will forget the light.”
“Art is a house that tries to be haunted.”
“There is a pain – so utter – It swallows substance up – Then covers the Abyss with Trance – So Memory can step Around – across – opon it – As one within a Swoon – Goes safely – where an open eye – Would drop Him – Bone by Bone.”
“Lest Love should value lessWhat loss would value more,Had it the stricken privilege ---It cherishes before.”
“Inebriate of Air — am I —And Debauchee of Dew —Reeling — thro endless summer days —From Inns of Molten Blue —”
“Para viajar lejos, no hay mejor nave que un libro.”
“The Truth must dazzle gradually or every man be blind.”
“I stepped from Plank to PlankSo slow and cautiouslyThe Stars about my Head I felt,About my Feet the Sea.I knew not but the nextWould be my final inch —This gave me that precarious GaitSome call Experience.”
“Opinion is a fitting thing but truth outlasts the sun - if then we cannot own them both, possess the oldest one.”
“Our lives are Swiss, so still- so cool”
“I held a jewel in my fingers And went to sleep. The day was warm, and winds were prosy; I said: "'T will keep."I woke and chid my honest fingers,—The gem was gone; And now an amethyst remembrance Is all I own.”
“Love is anterior to life, posterior to death, initial of creation, and the exponent of breath.”
“The Soul selects her own Society—Then—shuts the Door—To her divine Majority—Present no more—Unmoved—she notes the Chariots—pausing—At her low Gate—Unmoved—an Emperor be kneelingUpon her Mat—I've known her—from an ample nation—Choose One—Then—close the Valves of her attention—Like Stone—”
“Lad of Athens, faithful beTo thyself,And Mystery -All the rest is Perjury”
“MY river runs to thee: Blue sea, wilt welcome me? My river waits reply. Oh sea, look graciously! I ’ll fetch thee brooks From spotted nooks,— Say, sea, Take me!”
“For you know we do not mind our dressWhen we are going home”
“Till I loved I never liked enough.”
“Then, as horizons step, Or noons report away,Without the formula of sound, It passes, and we stay:A quality of loss Affecting our content.”
“That love is all there is, Is all we know of love.”
“Fortune befriends the bold.”
“Bind me-I still can sing-Banish-my mandolinStrikes true within-Slay-and my Soul shall riseChanting to Paradise-Still thine.”
“My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun -In Corners - till a DayThe Owner passed - identified -And carried Me away -”
“Much Madness is Divinest Sense, to a Discerning Eye....”
“Write me of hope and love, and hearts that endured.”
“La esperanza es esa cosa con plumas que se posa en el alma y canta sin parar.”
“It is finished, is never said of us ”
“your brain is wider than the sky”
“Success is counted sweetest By those who ne’er succeed. To comprehend a nectar Requires sorest need.”
“The truth I do not dare to know I muffle with a jest.”
“But a Book is only the Heart's Portrait- every Page a Pulse.”
“A Word that Breathes DistinctlyHas not the Power to Die”
“Love is like the wild rose-briar;Friendship like the holly-tree.The holly is dark when the rose-briar blooms,But which will bloom most constantly?The wild rose-briar is sweet in spring,Its summer blossoms scent the air;Yet wait till winter comes again,And who will call the wild-briar fair?Then, scorn the silly rose-wreath now,And deck thee with holly's sheen,That, when December blights thy brow,He still may leave thy garland green.”
“Not knowing when the dawn will comeI open every door.”
“These are the days when birds come back, a very few, a Bird or two, to take a backward look.”
“I never saw a moor, I never saw the sea; Yet know I how the heather looks, And what a wave must be. I never spoke with God, Nor visited in Heaven; Yet certain am I of the spot, As if a chart were given.”
“Behavior is what a man does, not what he thinks, feels, or believes.”
“I must go in, the fog is rising.”