Inspirational Poems by Emily Dickinson
My favorite poems and quotes from the marvelous and mysterious Emily Dickinson. Her life may remain mostly a secret, but her insight into the world will last forever.
There are many outstanding qualities in Emily Dickinson’s writing, but what personally stands out to me the most, is her infatuation with love and death, and her timely view of the world. Her poetry was discovered stockpiled in her bedroom after her death, so the details of her life are mostly unknown. Because of this, readers have long enjoyed trying to piece together the mystery of Emily Dickinson through her work. Below are my favorite poems and quotes:
An Ode To Emily Dickinson: Composition of My Favorite Poems
- I am afraid to own a Body —
I am afraid to own a Body —
I am afraid to own a Soul —
Profound — precarious Property —
Possession, not optional —Double Estate — entailed at pleasure
Upon an unsuspecting Heir —
Duke in a moment of Deathlessness
And God, for a Frontier.
2. “Hope” is the thing with feathers
“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.
3. Wild Nights — Wild Nights!
Wild Nights — Wild Nights!
Were I with thee
Wild Nights should be
Our luxury!Futile — the Winds —
To a Heart in port —
Done with the Compass —
Done with the Chart!Rowing in Eden —
Ah, the Sea!
Might I but moor — Tonight —
In Thee!
4. My Life had stood — a Loaded Gun
My Life had stood — a Loaded Gun —
In Corners — till a Day
The Owner passed — identified —
And carried Me away —And now We roam in Sovereign Woods —
And now We hunt the Doe —
And every time I speak for Him —
The Mountains straight reply —And do I smile, such cordial light
Upon the Valley glow —
It is as a Vesuvian face
Had let its pleasure through —And when at Night — Our good Day done —
I guard My Master’s Head —
’Tis better than the Eider-Duck’s
Deep Pillow — to have shared —To foe of His — I’m deadly foe —
None stir the second time —
On whom I lay a Yellow Eye —
Or an emphatic Thumb —Though I than He — may longer live
He longer must — than I —
For I have but the power to kill,
Without — the power to die —
5. Because I could not stop for Death
Because I could not stop for Death —
He kindly stopped for me —
The Carriage held but just Ourselves —
And Immortality.We slowly drove — He knew no haste
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too,
For His Civility —We passed the School, where Children strove
At Recess — in the Ring —
We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain —
We passed the Setting Sun —Or rather — He passed Us —
The Dews drew quivering and chill —
For only Gossamer, my Gown —
My Tippet — only Tulle —We paused before a House that seemed
A Swelling of the Ground —
The Roof was scarcely visible —
The Cornice — in the Ground —Since then — ’tis Centuries — and yet
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses’ Heads
Were toward Eternity —
6. I’m Nobody! Who are you?
I’m Nobody! Who are you?
Are you — Nobody — Too?
Then there’s a pair of us!
Don’t tell! they’d advertise — you know!How dreary — to be — Somebody!
How public — like a Frog —
To tell one’s name — the livelong June —
To an admiring Bog!
7. I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,
I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,
And Mourners to and fro
Kept treading — treading — till it seemed
That Sense was breaking through –And when they all were seated,
A Service, like a Drum –
Kept beating — beating — till I thought
My mind was going numb –And then I heard them lift a Box
And creak across my Soul
With those same Boots of Lead, again,
Then Space — began to toll,As all the Heavens were a Bell,
And Being, but an Ear,
And I, and Silence, some strange Race,
Wrecked, solitary, here –And then a Plank in Reason, broke,
And I dropped down, and down –
And hit a World, at every plunge,
And Finished knowing — then –
8. Nobody knows this little Rose
Nobody knows this little Rose —
It might a pilgrim be
Did I not take it from the ways
And lift it up to thee.
Only a Bee will miss it —
Only a Butterfly,
Hastening from far journey —
On its breast to lie —
Only a Bird will wonder —
Only a Breeze will sigh —
Ah Little Rose — how easy
For such as thee to die!
Emily Dickinson Quotes That I Love:
- “I dwell in possibility”
- “Unable are the loved to die, for love is immortality”
- “To love is so startling it leaves little time for anything else”
- “Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul — and sings the tunes without the words — and never stops at all.”
- “The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience”
- “A wounded deer leaps the highest”
- “My friends are my estate”
- “In November, the trees are standing all sticks and bones. Without their leaves, how lovely they are, spreading their arms like dancers. They know it is time to be still.”
- “Forever is composed of nows”
- “The brain is wider than the sky”
- “I am out with lanterns looking for myself”
