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.
For more information, please see http://www.answers.com/topic/emily-di...
“Exultation is the goingOf an inland soul to seaPast the houses, past the headlandsInto deep eternity!Bred as we, among the mountainsCan the sailor understandThe divine intoxicationOf the first league out from land?”
“I died for beauty, but was scarce Adjusted in the tomb, When one who died for truth was lain In an adjoining room. He questioned softly why I failed? “For beauty,” I replied. “And I for truth,—the two are one; We brethren are,” he said. And so, as kinsmen met a night, We talked between the rooms, Until the moss had reached our lips, And covered up our names.”
“You cannot put a fire out!A thing that can ignite can go itself-without a flame-E'en through the darkest night!”
“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 it fit.”
“That I shall love always, I argue theethat love is life,and life hath immortality”
“Who has not found the heaven belowWill fail of it above.God's residence is next to min,His furniture is love.”
“Bring me the sunset in a cup.”
“Faith is a fine inventionWhen gentlemen can see,But microscopes are prudentIn an emergency.”
“Forever is composed of nows.”
“Le monde est oval. On apprend l’eau par la soif, et la terre par le voyage en mer; la passion par les affres, et la paix par les récits de guerre; l’amour par la mort, et les oiseaux par l’hiver.”
“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.”
“The Heart is the Capital of the Mind—The Mind is a single State—The Heart and the Mind together makeA single Continent—One—is the Population—Numerous enough—This ecstatic NationSeek—it is Yourself.”
“I don't profess to be profound; but I do lay claim to common sense.”
“An ear can break a human heartAs quickly as a spear,We wish the ear had not a heartSo dangerously near.”
“The brain is wider than the sky, For, put them side by side, The one the other will include With ease, and you beside.”
“You ask of my companions. Hills, sir, and the sundown, and a dog as large as myself.”
“Love is its own rescue; for we, at our supremest, are but its trembling emblems.”
“My business is circumference.”
“Judge tenderly of me.”
“I can wade Grief—Whole Pools of it—I'm used to that—But the least push of JoyBreaks up my feet—And I tip—drunken—Let no Pebble—smile—'Twas the New Liquor—That was all!”
“Mirth is the Mail of Anguish --”
“They say that 'home is where the heart is.' I think it is where the house is, and the adjacent buildings.”
“Tell all the Truth but tell it slant--Success in Circuit liesToo bright for our infirm DelightThe Truth's superb surpriseAs Lightning to the Children easedWith explanation kindThe Truth must dazzle graduallyOr every man be blind--”
“Beauty is not caused. It is.”
“How happy is the little stoneThat rambles in the road alone,And doesn't care about careers,And exigencies never fears;Whose coat of elemental brownA passing universe put on;And independent as the sun,Associates or glows alone,Fulfilling absolute decreeIn casual simplicity.”
“Truth is so rare, it is delightful to tell it.”
“Todo lo que sabemos del amor es que el amor es todo lo que hay.”
“The dearest ones of time, the strongest friends of the soul--BOOKS.”
“Those who have not found the heaven below,will fail of it above.”
“We never know how high we are till we are called to rise. Then if we are true to form our statures touch the skies.”
“A little Madness in the Spring Is wholesome even for the King.”
“We turn not older with years but newer every day.”
“Pardon My Sanity In A World Insane”
“There is no Frigate like a Book To take us Lands awayNor any Coursers like a Page Of prancing Poetry – This Traverse may the poorest takeWithout oppress of Toll – How frugal is the Chariot That bears a Human soul.”
“Dogs are better than human beings because they know but do not tell.”
“The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience.”
“I'm nobody! Who are you? Are you nobody, too? Then there ’s a pair of us—don’t tell! They ’d banish us, you know. How dreary to be somebody! How public, like a frog To tell your name the livelong day To an admiring bog!”
“To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.”
“This is my letter to the worldThat never wrote to me”
“We outgrow love like other things and put it in a drawer, till it an antique fashion shows like costumes grandsires wore.”
“Because I could not stop for Death – He kindly stopped for me – The Carriage held but just Ourselves – And Immortality.”
“Nature is a haunted house--but Art--is a house that tries to be haunted.”
“Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul And sings the tune without the words And never stops at all.”
“I dwell in possibility…”
“A Word is DeadA word is deadWhen it is said,Some say. I say it justBegins to liveThat day.”
“One need not be a chamber to be haunted.”
“That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet.”
“Morning without you is a dwindled dawn.”
“If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain.”
“Celebrity is the chastisement of merit and the punishment of talent.”