Selected Poems

Emily Dickinson

• Publisher: Open Road Media
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781504061377
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Women in Poetry
• Index: Literature

A collection of poems by " one of America's greatest and most original poets of all time" (Poetry Foundation). One of the nineteenth century's leading poets, Emily Dickinson wrote nearly 1, 800 poems during her lifetime, though only a handful were published. This collection includes some of Dickinson's best-known works, reflecting her thoughts on nature, life, death, the mind, and the spirit. "Emily Dickinson is one of our most original writers, a force destined to endure in American letters.... Without elaborate philosophy, yet with irresistible ways of expression, Emily Dickinson's poems have true lyric appeal, because they make abstractions, such as love, hope, loneliness, death, and immortality, seem near and intimate and faithful." — The Atlantic "Emily Dickinson did not leave any poetics or treatise to explain her life's work, so we can come to her poetry with minds and hearts open, and unearth whatever it is we need to find. Her oeuvre is a large one and most of her work was done in secret—she didn't share most of what she wrote. Ten or so poems were published in her lifetime, mostly without her consent. She often included poems with letters but, after her death, the poet's sister Vinnie was surprised to find almost eighteen hundred individual poems in Dickinson's bedroom, some of them bound into booklets by the poet." — Publishers Weekly "Dickinson found love, spiritual quickening and immortality, all on her own terms." — The Guardian

Selected Poems

My business is circumference.

Emily Dickinson wrote in all seventeen hundred and seventy-five poems, of which only seven were published in her lifetime, all anonymously. The poems were undated and, with the exception of twenty-four, untitled. All but one hundred and twenty-three of the published poems still exist in her own handwriting. These can be approximately dated by the script, which changed strikingly decade by decade and almost year by year.

The poems that follow are arranged by years in some approximation to chronological order, except for the last seventeen, which cannot be dated since they exist only in copies.

The text used follows the text of the volumes printed in 1890,1891, and 1896. In these early editions Emily Dickinson’s erratic punctuation and lavish use of capital letters were changed to conform to accepted usage, and occasional liberties were taken with the text in order to correct grammatical vagaries or to clarify rhyme or meaning, Scholars who wish to study the exact original text should consult the three-volume edition mentioned in the Introduction.

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!

On this wondrous sea,

Sailing silently,

Ho! pilot, ho!

Knowest thou the shore

Where no breakers roar,

Where the storm is o’er?

In the silent west

Many sails at rest,

Their anchors fast;

Thither I pilot thee,—

Land, ho! Eternity!

Ashore at last!

The morns are meeker than they were,

The nuts are getting brown;

The berry’s cheek is plumper,

The rose is out of town.

The maple wears a gayer scarf,

The field a scarlet gown.

Lest I should be old-fashioned,

I’ll put a trinket on.

The gentian weaves her fringes,

The maple’s loom is red.

My departing blossoms

Obviate parade.

A brief, but patient illness,

An hour to prepare;

And one, below this morning,

Is where the angels are.

It was a short procession,—

The bobolink was there,

An aged bee addressed us,

And then we knelt in prayer.

We trust that she was willing,—

We ask that we may be.

Summer, sister, seraph,

Let us go with thee!

In the name of the bee

And of the butterfly

And of the breeze, amen!

Frequentl...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Contents
• Publisher’s Note
• Introduction
• Emily Dickinson
• Selected Poems
• Selected Letters
• Copyright