Emily Dickinson

Here is a link to a biography of Emily Dickinson:

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/emily-dickinson

You may also wish to read some of the critical analysis essays about this poet, some contained on the above website (www.poetryfoundation.org) or others that you can find on other sites.

Many of Emily Dickinson's poems can also be found as audio files, read by others, so if you are interested in listening to them read aloud, search for the audio versions. Her poetry has often been adapted into songs as well, and they may be easier to memorize as songs, so we can find some of those versions as well.

Here are the first three poems we will look at by this poet:

“Hope” is the thing with feathers - 

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“Hope” is the thing with feathers - 

That perches in the soul - 

And sings the tune without the words - 

And never stops - at all - 

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard - 

And sore must be the storm - 

That could abash the little Bird 

That kept so many warm - 

I’ve heard it in the chillest land - 

And on the strangest Sea - 

Yet - never - in Extremity, 

It asked a crumb - of me.

A narrow fellow in the grass 

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A narrow fellow in the grass 

Occasionally rides; 

You may have met him—did you not 

His notice sudden is, 

The grass divides as with a comb, 

A spotted shaft is seen, 

And then it closes at your feet, 

And opens further on.

He likes a boggy acre,   

A floor too cool for corn,

But when a boy and barefoot, 

I more than once at noon 

Have passed, I thought, a whip lash, 

Unbraiding in the sun, 

When stooping to secure it, 

It wrinkled and was gone. 

Several of nature’s people 

I know, and they know me;

I feel for them a transport 

Of cordiality. 

But never met this fellow, 

Attended or alone, 

Without a tighter breathing, 

And zero at the bone.

I dwell in Possibility – 

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I dwell in Possibility – 

A fairer House than Prose – 

More numerous of Windows – 

Superior – for Doors – 

Of Chambers as the Cedars – 

Impregnable of eye – 

And for an everlasting Roof 

The Gambrels of the Sky – 

Of Visitors – the fairest – 

For Occupation – This – 

The spreading wide my narrow Hands 

To gather Paradise –