(1830–1886)
U.S. poet
Emily Dickinson
Carlo died—
Would you instruct me now?
The Letters of Emily Dickinson vol 2, ed. by Thomas H. Johnson (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1958), 449.
Sorrow almost resents love, it is so inflamed.
January 1878 letter to Mrs. Samuel Bowles, in Emily Dickinson Letters, Emily Fragos ed. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2011), 198.
I wish one could be sure the suffering had a loving side. The thought to look down some day, and see the crooked steps we came, from a safer place, must be a precious thing…
May 1862 letter to Louise and Frances Norcross, in Emily Dickinson Letters, Emily Fragos ed. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2011), 194.
Do you look out to-night? The moon rides like a girl through a topaz town.
January 1862 letter to Samuel Bowles, in Emily Dickinson Letters, Emily Fragos ed. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2011), 193.
You asked me to come and see you—I must speak of that. I thank you, A., but I don’t go from home, unless emergency leads me by the hand, and then I do it obstinately, and draw back if I can. Should I ever leave home, which is improbable, I will, with much delight, accept your invitation; till then, my dear A., my warmest thanks are yours, but don’t expect me.
ca. July 26, 1853 letter to Abiah Root, in Letters: Emily Dickinson, selected and ed. by Emily Fragos (New York: Everyman’s Library, 2011), 116.
Into the little port you cannot sail unwelcome at any hour of day or night.
Autumn 1869 letter to Louisa and Frances Norcross, Dickinson’s first cousins, in Letters: Emily Dickinson, selected and ed. by Emily Fragos (New York: Everyman’s Library, 2011), 55.
I think you would like the chestnut-tree I met in my walk. It hit my notice suddenly, and I thought the skies were in blossom.
1862 letter to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, in Letters of Emily Dickinson, vol. 1 (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1894), 308.
An honest Tear
Is durabler than Bronze—
No. 1192, in Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson (New York: Back Bay Books, 1976), 528.
I hope your rambles have been sweet, and your reveries spacious.
Letter to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, summer 1878, in The letters of Emily Dickinson 1845-1886, ed. by Mabel Loomis Todd (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1906), 328.
My flowers are near and foreign, and I have but to cross the floor to stand in the Spice Isles.
The Letters of Emily Dickinson vol 2, ed. by Thomas H. Johnson (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1958), 449.
Narcotics cannot still the Tooth
That nibbles at the soul.—
Final Harvest (Boston, MA: Back Bay Books, 1964), 124.
My garden is all covered up by snow; picked gilliflower Tuesday, now gilliflowers are asleep. The hills take off their purple frocks, and dress in long white nightgowns.
The Letters of Emily Dickinson vol 2, ed. by Thomas H. Johnson (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1958), 228.