Emily Dickinson’s Poems: As She Preserved Them

Edited by Cristanne Miller

Cover: Emily Dickinson’s Poems: As She Preserved Them, by Emily Dickinson, edited by Cristanne Miller, from Harvard University Press

Cristanne Miller’s major edition of Emily Dickinson’s poems foregrounds the copies and versions of poems that the poet kept for herself during her lifetime, in the form in which she retained them. While there is no clear evidence as to whether she retained some of the extant manuscripts, we know with certainty that she retained the more than 1,100 poems she either bound into booklets (called “fascicles” by Dickinson scholars) or copied systematically in fair hand onto unbound sheets and leaves of stationery.

Below is an index of the poems, identified by first line, with links to view high-quality digitized images of the originals at the open-access Emily Dickinson Archive.

Note: The poems collected in Fascicle 34 appear across multiple image sets at EDA. The poems are therefore linked individually. Expand the list to follow the links.

The Fascicles

  • View at EDA Fascicle One
    • Sheet One
      • The Gentian weaves her fringes –
      • A brief, but patient illness –
      • In the name of the Bee –
      • Frequently the woods are pink –
      • A sepal – petal – and a thorn
      • Distrustful of the Gentian –
      • Flees so the phantom meadow
      • We lose – because we win –
      • All these my banners be.
      • To lose – if One can find again –
      • To him who keeps an Orchis’ heart –
    • Sheet Two
      • I had a guinea golden –
      • There is a morn by men unseen –
      • As if I asked a common alms –
      • She slept beneath a tree –
    • Sheet Three
      • The feet of people walking home
      • It’s all I have to bring today –
      • So has a Daisy vanished
      • If those I loved were lost
    • Sheet Four
      • Adrift! A little boat adrift!
      • Summer for thee, grant I may be
      • When Roses cease to bloom, Sir,
      • Oh if remembering were forgetting –
      • Garlands for Queens, may be –
      • Nobody knows this little Rose –
  • View at EDA Fascicle Two
    • Sheet One
      • There is a word
      • Through lane it lay – thro’ bramble –
      • The Guest is gold and crimson –
      • Snow flakes.
      • Before the ice is in the pools –
      • By such and such an offering
    • Sheet Two
      • It did not surprise me –
      • When I count the seeds
      • Bless God, he went as soldiers,
      • If I should cease to bring a Rose
      • One Sister have I in the house –
    • Sheet Three (early 1859)
      • “Lethe” in my flower,
      • To venerate the simple days
      • I’ve got an arrow here.
      • I robbed the Woods –
      • A Day! Help! Help!
      • Could live – did live –
      • If she had been the Mistletoe
    • Sheet Four
      • My Wheel is in the dark!
      • There’s something quieter than sleep
      • I keep my pledge.
      • Heart! We will forget him!
      • Once more, my now bewildered Dove
      • Baffled for just a day or two –
  • View at EDA Fascicle Three
    • Sheet One
      • Delayed till she had ceased to know –
      • Some things that fly there be –
      • Within my reach!
      • So bashful when I spied her!
      • My friend must be a Bird –
      • Went up a year this evening!
    • Sheet Two
      • Angels, in the early morning
      • My nosegays are for Captives –
      • Sexton! My Master’s sleeping here.
      • The rainbow never tells me
      • One dignity delays for all –
      • As by the dead we love to sit –
      • New feet within my garden go –
      • I hide myself within my flower
    • Sheet Three
      • I never told the buried gold
      • I never lost as much but twice –
      • I haven’t told my garden yet –
      • I often passed the Village
    • Sheet Four
      • The morns are meeker than they were –
      • Whether my bark went down at sea –
      • Taken from men – this morning –
      • Sleep is supposed to be
      • If I should die –
      • By Chivalries as tiny,
  • View at EDA Fascicle Four
    • Sheet One
      • Perhaps you’d like to buy a flower,
      • Water, is taught by thirst.
      • Have you got a Brook in your little heart,
      • Flowers – Well – if anybody
      • Pigmy seraphs – gone astray –
      • I had rather wear her grace
    • Sheet Two
      • Heart not so heavy as mine
      • Soul, Wilt thou toss again?
      • An altered look about the hills –
      • Some, too fragile for winter winds
    • Sheet Three
      • Whose are the little beds – I asked
      • For every Bird a nest –
      • “They have not chosen me” – he said –
    • Sheet Four
      • She bore it till the simple veins
      • We should not mind so small a flower
      • This heart that broke so long –
      • On such a night, or such a night,
  • View at EDA Fascicle Five
    • Sheet One
      • So from the mould
      • Artists wrestled here!
      • Success is counted sweetest
      • The Bee is not afraid of me.
      • Where bells no more affright the morn –
      • Ambition cannot find him –
      • Our share of night to bear –
    • Sheet Two
      • “Good night,” because we must!
      • South winds jostle them –
      • Low at my problem bending,
      • What Inn is this
      • I had some things that I called mine –
      • In rags mysterious as these
      • My friend attacks my friend!
    • Sheet Three
      • “Arcturus” is his other name –
      • Talk with prudence to a Beggar
      • If this is “fading”
      • As Watchers hang upon the East –
      • Her breast is fit for pearls,
    • Sheet Four
      • A something in a summer’s Day
      • A throe upon the features –
      • Glowing is her Bonnet –
      • Many cross the Rhine
      • In lands I never saw – they say
      • For each extatic instant
  • View at EDA Fascicle Six
    • Sheet One
      • Who never lost, are unprepared
      • A Lady red – amid the Hill
      • To fight aloud, is very brave –
      • ‘Houses’ – so the Wise men tell me –
    • Sheet Two
      • Bring me the sunset in a cup
      • She died at play –
      • Cocoon above! Cocoon below!
      • Exultation is the going
      • I never hear the word “Escape”
    • Sheet Three
      • These are the days when Birds come back –
      • Besides the Autumn poets sing
      • Safe in their Alabaster Chambers –
      • A poor – torn heart – a tattered heart –
    • Sheet Four
      • I bring an unaccustomed wine
      • As children bid the Guest “Good night”
      • Going to Heaven!
      • Our lives are Swiss –
  • View at EDA Fascicle Seven
    • Sheet One
      • A little East of Jordan,
      • All overgrown by cunning moss,
      • A science – so the Savans say,
      • Will there really be a “morning”?
      • Great Caesar! Condescend
    • Sheet Two
      • I have a King, who does not speak –
      • Where I have lost, I softer tread –
      • She went as quiet as the Dew
      • To hang our head – ostensibly –
      • The Daisy follows soft the Sun –
    • Sheet Three
      • Like her the Saints retire,
      • Papa above!
      • ’Twas such a little – little boat
      • “Sown in dishonor”!
      • She died – this was the way she died.
      • If pain for peace prepares
      • Surgeons must be very careful
    • Sheet Four
      • Some Rainbow – coming from the Fair!
      • By a flower – By a letter
      • I can’t tell you – but you feel it –
  • View at EDA Fascicle Eight
    • Sheet One
      • A wounded Deer – leaps highest –
      • The Sun kept stooping – stooping – low!
    • Sheet Two
      • To learn the Transport by the Pain –
      • If the foolish, call them “flowers” –
      • In Ebon Box, when years have flown
      • Portraits are to daily faces
    • Sheet Three
      • Wait till the Majesty of Death
      • ’Tis so much joy! ’Tis so much joy!
      • A fuzzy fellow, without feet –
      • At last, to be identified!
    • Sheet Four
      • I have never seen ‘Volcanoes’ –
      • Dust is the only Secret.
      • I’m the little “Heart’s Ease”!
    • Sheet Five
      • Except to Heaven, she is nought.
      • I cautious, scanned my little life –
      • If I could bribe them by a Rose
  • View at EDA Fascicle Nine
    • Sheet One
      • What shall I do – it whimpers so –
      • How many times these low feet staggered –
      • Make me a picture of the sun –
      • Bound – a trouble –
    • Leaf Two
      • What is – “Paradise” –
    • Sheet Three
      • The murmur of a Bee
      • You love me – you are sure –
      • My River runs to Thee –
      • It’s such a little thing to weep –
      • He was weak, and I was strong – then –
    • Sheet Four
      • The Skies can’t keep their secret!
      • Poor little Heart!
      • I shall know why – when Time is over –
      • On this long storm the Rainbow rose –
    • Sheet Five
      • Musicians wrestle everywhere –
      • For this – accepted Breath –
      • We don’t cry – Tim and I –
    • Sheet Six
      • Dying! Dying in the night!
      • An awful Tempest mashed the air –
      • I’m “wife” – I’ve finished that –
      • I stole them from a Bee –
      • Two swimmers wrestled on the spar –
      • My eye is fuller than my vase –
    • Sheet Seven
      • He forgot – and I – remembered –
      • A Slash of Blue! A sweep of Gray!
      • I should not dare to leave my friend,
      • The Flower must not blame the Bee –
      • Some – keep the Sabbath – going to church –
  • View at EDA Fascicle Ten
    • Sheet One
      • We – Bee and I – live by the quaffing –
      • God permits industrious Angels –
      • The Sun – just touched the Morning
      • The Lamp burns sure – within –
    • Sheet Two
      • Tho’ my destiny be Fustian –
      • Tho’ I get home how late – how late –
      • The Rose did caper on her cheek –
      • With thee, in the Desert –
      • Faith is a fine invention
      • The thought beneath so slight a film –
    • Sheet Three
      • I’ll tell you how the Sun rose –
      • A little Bread – A crust – a crumb –
      • Just lost, when I was saved!
      • Come slowly – Eden!
      • Least Rivers – docile to some sea.
    • Sheet Four
      • One life of so much consequence!
      • You’re right – “the way is narrow” –
      • Safe in their Alabaster chambers –
      • Springs – shake the seals –
    • Sheet Five
      • The Court is far away –
      • If He dissolve – then – there is nothing – more –
      • I think just how my shape will rise –
      • I’ve nothing Else – to bring, You know –
  • View at EDA Fascicle Eleven
    • Sheet One
      • A Mien to move a Queen –
      • The Drop, that wrestles in the Sea –
      • The Robin’s my Criterion for Tune –
      • I’ve known a Heaven, like a Tent –
    • Leaf Two
      • I came to buy a smile – today –
    • Leaf Three
      • A Clock stopped –
    • Leaf Four
      • I’m Nobody! Who are you?
      • I held a Jewel in my fingers –
    • Leaf Five
      • It is easy to work when the soul is at play –
      • That after Horror – that ’twas us –
    • Sheet Six
      • Ah, Moon, and Star!
      • I could borrow a Bonnet
      • Just so – Christ – raps –
      • Forever at His side to walk –
      • It can’t be “Summer”!
    • Sheet Seven
      • What would I give to see his face?
      • Rearrange a “Wife’s” Affection!
      • Wild nights – Wild nights!
      • I shall keep singing!
      • Over the fence –
  • View at EDA Fascicle Twelve
    • Sheet One
      • I taste a liquor never brewed
      • Pine Bough.
      • If I shouldn’t be alive
      • I’ve heard an Organ talk, sometimes –
      • A transport one cannot contain
      • “Faith” is a fine invention
    • Sheet Two
      • I got so I could hear his name –
      • A single Screw of Flesh
      • A Weight with Needles on the pounds –
    • Sheet Three
      • Father – I bring thee – not myself
      • Where Ships of Purple – gently toss –
      • This – is the land – the Sunset washes –
      • The Doomed – regard the Sunrise
      • Jesus! thy Crucifix
      • Did we disobey Him?
    • Leaf Four
      • Unto like Story –
    • Sheet Five
      • One Year ago – jots what?
      • It’s like the Light –
      • Alone, I cannot be –
    • Sheet Six
      • He put the Belt around my life –
      • The only Ghost I ever saw
    • Sheet Seven
      • Doubt Me! My Dim Companion!
      • Many a phrase has the English language –
    • Sheet Eight
      • Of all the Sounds despatched abroad –
      • Her smile was shaped like other smiles –
  • View at EDA Fascicle Thirteen
    • Sheet One
      • I know some lonely Houses off the Road
      • I can wade Grief –
    • Sheet Two
      • You see I cannot see – your lifetime –
      • “Hope” is the thing with feathers –
      • To die – takes just a little while –
      • If I’m lost – now –
    • Sheet Three
      • Delight is as the flight –
      • She sweeps with many-colored Brooms –
      • Of Bronze – and Blaze –
      • There’s a certain Slant of light,
    • Sheet Four
      • Blazing in Gold – and
      • Good Night! Which put the Candle out?
      • Read – Sweet – how others – strove –
      • Put up my lute!
    • Sheet Five
      • There came a Day – at Summer’s full –
      • The lonesome for they know not What –
    • Sheet Six
      • How the old Mountains drip with Sunset
      • Of Tribulation, these are They,
      • If your Nerve, deny you –
  • View at EDA Fascicle Fourteen
    • Sheet One
      • The maddest dream – recedes – unrealized –
      • What if I say I shall not wait!
      • Ah, Moon – and Star!
      • A Shady friend – for Torrid days –
    • Sheet Two
      • A solemn thing – it was – I said –
      • I breathed enough to take the Trick –
      • Kill your Balm – and its Odors bless you –
      • “Heaven” – is what I cannot reach!
    • Leaf Three
      • The feet of people walking home
    • Sheet Four
      • Inconceivably solemn!
      • More Life – went out – when He went
      • The Months have ends – the Years – a knot –
      • Removed from Accident of Loss
    • Sheet Five
      • Your Riches – taught me – Poverty.
      • A Toad, can die of Light –
      • There are two Ripenings –
    • Sheet Six
      • It ceased to hurt me, though so slow
      • But not the Grief – that nestled Close
      • Give little Anguish,
  • View at EDA Fascicle Fifteen
    • Sheet One
      • The first Day’s Night had come –
      • The Color of the Grave is Green –
    • Sheet Two
      • ’Twas like a Maelstrom, with a notch,
      • I gave myself to Him –
      • Sunset at Night – is natural –
    • Sheet Three
      • We grow accustomed to the Dark –
      • You’ll know it – as you know ’tis Noon –
      • A Charm invests a face
    • Sheet Four
      • If I may have it, when it’s dead,
      • I read my sentence – steadily –
    • Sheet Five
      • A Murmur in the Trees – to note –
      • It is-dead – Find it –
      • Not in this World to see his face –
      • I found the words to every thought
    • Sheet Six
      • I never felt at Home – Below –
      • The Body grows without –
      • I had been hungry, all the Years –
  • View at EDA Fascicle Sixteen
    • Sheet One
      • Before I got my eye put out –
      • Of nearness to her sundered Things
    • Sheet Two
      • Tie the strings to my Life, My Lord,
      • I like a look of Agony,
      • I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,
    • Sheet Three
      • ’Tis so appalling – it exhilirates –
      • How noteless Men, and Pleiads, stand,
      • When we stand on the tops of Things –
    • Sheet Four
      • ’Twas just this time, last year, I died.
      • Afraid! Of whom am I afraid?
      • He showed me Hights I never saw –
  • View at EDA Fascicle Seventeen
    • Sheet One
      • I dreaded that first Robin, so,
    • Sheet Two
      • He touched me, so I live to know
      • I had the Glory – that will do –
      • She sights a Bird – she chuckles –
      • They leave us with the Infinite.
    • Sheet Three
      • I’m ceded – I’ve stopped being Theirs –
      • If Anybody’s friend be dead
    • Sheet Four
      • It was not Death, for I stood up,
      • If you were coming in the Fall,
    • Sheet Five
      • I felt my life with both my hands
      • Perhaps I asked too large –
      • A Bird, came down the Walk –
    • Sheet Six
      • The Soul has Bandaged moments –
      • Like Flowers, that heard the news of Dews, As –
  • View at EDA Fascicle Eighteen
    • Sheet One
      • It’s thoughts – and just One Heart –
      • As far from pity, as complaint –
    • Sheet Two
      • I know that He exists.
      • He strained my faith –
      • I tend my flowers for thee –
    • Sheet Three
      • I envy Seas, whereon He rides –
      • Those fair – fictitious People –
    • Sheet Four
      • Within my Garden, rides a Bird
      • Is Bliss then, such Abyss –
      • After great pain, a formal feeling comes –
      • This World is not conclusion.
    • Sheet Five
      • It will be Summer – eventually.
      • My Reward for Being, was This –
      • ’Twas the old – road – through pain –
      • At least – to pray – is left – is left –
    • Sheet Six
      • Better – than Music!
  • View at EDA Fascicle Nineteen
    • Sheet One
      • The Grass so little has to do,
      • All the letters I can write
      • I cannot dance upon my Toes –
    • Sheet Two
      • Good Morning – Midnight –
      • I like to see it lap the Miles –
      • It don’t sound so terrible – quite – as it did –
    • Sheet Three
      • I’ll clutch – and clutch –
      • The Moon is distant from the Sea –
    • Sheet Four
      • It would never be Common – more – I said –
      • Do People moulder equally,
    • Leaf Five
      • Knows how to forget!
    • Sheet Six
      • We talked as Girls do –
      • Empty my Heart, of Thee –
      • I cried at Pity – not at Pain –
    • Leaf Seven
      • The face I carry with me – last –
  • View at EDA Fascicle Twenty
    • Sheet One
      • I took one Draught of Life –
      • A train went through a burial gate,
      • The Morning after Wo –
      • Departed – to the Judgment –
    • Sheet Two
      • I think the Hemlock likes to stand
      • Dare you see a Soul at the “White Heat”?
      • To hear an Oriole sing
      • I reason, Earth is short –
    • Sheet Three
      • To put this World down, like a Bundle –
    • Sheet Four
      • One need not be a chamber – to be Haunted –
      • The Soul selects her own Society –
    • Sheet Five
      • How sick – to wait – in any place – but thine –
      • Mine – by the Right of the White Election!
      • She lay as if at play
      • Heaven is so far of the Mind
  • View at EDA Fascicle Twenty-One
    • Sheet One
      • I – Years – had been – from Home –
      • You’ll find – it when you try to die –
    • Sheet Two
      • I see thee better – in the Dark –
      • It would have starved a Gnat –
      • They shut me up in Prose –
    • Sheet Three
      • This was a Poet –
      • In falling Timbers buried –
      • I died for Beauty – but was scarce
      • Dreams – are well – but Waking’s better –
    • Sheet Four
      • The Outer – from the Inner
      • At last – to be identified –
      • The Malay – took the Pearl –
      • Love – thou art high –
    • Sheet Five
      • Our journey had advanced –
      • I rose – because He sank –
      • It was given to me by the Gods –
  • View at EDA Fascicle Twenty-Two
    • Sheet One
      • A Prison gets to be a friend –
      • Nature – sometimes sears a Sapling –
    • Sheet Two
      • She dealt her pretty words like Blades –
      • “Why do I love” You, Sir?
      • The Himmaleh was known to stoop
      • We Cover Thee – Sweet Face –
    • Sheet Three
      • Of Being is a Bird
      • A long – long Sleep –
      • Without this – there is nought –
      • The name – of it – is “Autumn” –
    • Sheet Four
      • I dwell in Possibility –
      • Whole Gulfs – of Red, and Fleets – of Red –
      • My Garden – like the Beach –
      • That first Day, when you praised Me, Sweet,
    • Sheet Five
      • To make One’s Toilette – after Death
      • ’Tis good – the looking back on Grief –
      • You love the Lord – you cannot see –
    • Sheet Six
      • Myself was formed – a Carpenter –
      • We pray – to Heaven –
      • He fumbles at your Soul
      • Just Once! Oh Least Request!
  • View at EDA Fascicle Twenty-Three
    • Sheet One
      • Because I could not stop for Death –
      • He fought like those
      • Fame of Myself, to justify,
    • Sheet Two
      • Wolfe demanded during Dying
      • Most she touched me by her muteness –
      • From Blank to Blank –
    • Sheet Three
      • The Whole of it came not at once –
      • He told a homely tale
      • Presentiment – is that long shadow – on the Lawn –
      • You constituted Time –
    • Sheet Four
      • My Faith is larger than the Hills –
      • Rests at Night
      • To offer brave assistance
    • Sheet Five
      • When I hoped, I recollect
      • The Wind didn’t come from the Orchard – today –
    • Sheet Six
      • The Day undressed – Herself –
      • The Beggar Lad – dies early –
      • One and One – are One –
      • I lived on Dread –
  • View at EDA Fascicle Twenty-Four
    • Sheet One
      • It sifts from Leaden Sieves –
      • Like Mighty Foot Lights – burned the Red
      • A Pit – but Heaven over it –
      • A curious Cloud surprised the Sky,
    • Sheet Two
      • Of Brussels – it was not –
      • He found my Being – set it up –
      • Unto my Books – so good to turn –
      • The Spider holds a Silver Ball
    • Sheet Three
      • Three times – we parted –
      • There is a pain – so utter –
      • It troubled me as once I was –
      • A still – Volcano – Life –
    • Sheet Four
      • When I was small, a Woman died –
      • This is my letter to the World
      • God made a little Gentian –
      • My Reward for Being – was this –
    • Sheet Five
      • It always felt to me – a wrong
    • Sheet Six
      • The Trees like Tassels – hit – and swung –
      • It feels a shame to be Alive –
  • View at EDA Fascicle Twenty-Five
    • Sheet One
      • A precious – mouldering pleasure – ’tis –
    • Sheet Two
      • Two Butterflies went out at Noon –
      • It was a quiet Way –
      • I know lives, I could miss
    • Sheet Three
      • I’m saying every day
      • The difference between Despair
      • I went to Heaven –
    • Sheet Four
      • The Angle of a Landscape –
      • The Soul unto itself
      • We see – Comparatively –
      • Of Course – I prayed –
    • Sheet Five
      • I’m sorry for the Dead – Today –
      • You cannot put a Fire out – No Man –
      • We dream – it is good we are dreaming –
    • Sheet Six
      • If ever the lid gets off my head
      • Some say good night – at night –
      • The Heart asks Pleasure – first –
  • View at EDA Fascicle Twenty-Six
    • Sheet One
      • They called me to the Window, for
      • No Romance sold unto
      • The Soul that hath a Guest,
    • Sheet Two
      • I watched the Moon around the House
      • When I hoped – I feared –
      • The Lightning playeth – all the while –
    • Sheet Three
      • Ourselves were wed one summer – dear –
      • ’Tis little I – could care for Pearls –
      • The Brain – is wider than the Sky –
      • We do not play on Graves –
    • Sheet Four
      • Her – last Poems –
      • When Bells stop ringing – Church – begins –
      • The Manner of its Death
      • The Red – Blaze – is the Morning –
    • Sheet Five
      • You’ll know Her – by Her Foot –
      • I am alive – I guess –
    • Sheet Six
      • Except the smaller size –
      • I think the longest Hour of all
      • So glad we are – a stranger’d deem
      • A Night – there lay the Days between –
  • View at EDA Fascicle Twenty-Seven
    • Sheet One
      • There’s been a Death, in the Opposite House,
      • The One that could repeat the Summer Day –
    • Sheet Two
      • I measure every Grief I meet
      • Conjecturing a Climate
    • Sheet Three
      • There is a Languor of the Life
      • When Diamonds are a Legend,
      • I had not minded – Walls –
      • A House upon the Hight –
    • Sheet Four
      • It’s Coming – the postponeless Creature –
      • I send Two Sunsets –
      • A Visitor in Marl –
      • Through the Dark Sod – as Education –
    • Sheet Five
      • Did Our Best Moment last –
      • Trust in the Unexpected –
      • The Brain, within its Grooves
    • Sheet Six
      • She hideth Her the last –
      • Reverse cannot befall
      • But little Carmine hath her face –
      • It knew no Medicine –
      • It knew no lapse, nor Diminution –
  • View at EDA Fascicle Twenty-Eight
    • Sheet One
      • My period had come for Prayer –
      • I pay – in Satin Cash –
      • ’Tis not that Dying hurts us so –
    • Sheet Two
      • A Dying Tiger – moaned for Drink –
      • He gave away his Life –
      • We learned the Whole of Love –
      • The Winters are so short –
    • Sheet Three
      • I reckon – When I count at all –
      • How many Flowers fail in Wood –
      • It might be lonelier
    • Sheet Four
      • I could die – to know –
      • Must be a Wo –
      • Delight – becomes pictorial –
      • If What we could – were what we would –
      • The Test of Love – is Death –
    • Sheet Five
      • My first well Day – since many ill –
      • Unit, like Death, for Whom?
    • Sheet Six
      • “Heaven” has different Signs – to me –
      • They dropped like Flakes –
      • I prayed, at first, a little Girl,
  • View at EDA Fascicle Twenty-Nine
    • Sheet One
      • From Cocoon forth a Butterfly
      • Her sweet Weight on my Heart a Night
      • ’Tis Opposites – Entice
    • Sheet Two
      • The Day that I was crowned
      • ’Twas warm – at first – like Us –
      • God is a distant – stately Lover –
      • If any sink, assure that this, now standing –
    • Sheet Three
      • The Night was wide, and furnished scant
      • Did you ever stand in a Cavern’s Mouth –
      • Much Madness is divinest Sense –
    • Sheet Four
      • The Wind – tapped like a tired Man –
      • To interrupt His Yellow Plan
      • Prayer is the little implement
    • Sheet Five
      • What care the Dead, for Chanticleer –
      • Forget! The lady with the Amulet
      • Undue Significance a starving man attaches
    • Sheet Six
      • I think I was enchanted
      • ’Tis Customary as we part
      • The Battle fought between the Soul
  • View at EDA Fascicle Thirty
    • Sheet One
      • No Crowd that has occurred
      • Beauty – be not caused – It Is –
      • He parts Himself – like Leaves –
    • Sheet Two
      • I started Early – Took my Dog –
      • “Morning” – means “Milking” – to the Farmer –
      • Endow the Living – with the Tears –
    • Sheet Three
      • ’Tis true – They shut me in the Cold –
      • The Province of the Saved
      • I took my Power in my Hand –
      • Some such Butterfly be seen
    • Sheet Four
      • I had no Cause to be awake –
      • I fear a Man of frugal speech –
      • Rehearsal to Ourselves
      • The Martyr Poets – did not tell –
    • Sheet Five
      • I cross till I am weary
      • Answer July
      • There is a Shame of Nobleness –
    • Sheet Six
      • An ignorance a Sunset
      • One Crucifixion is recorded – only –
      • The Sweetest Heresy received
      • Take Your Heaven further on –
  • View at EDA Fascicle Thirty-One
    • Sheet One
      • The Soul’s Superior instant
      • Me prove it now – Whoever doubt
      • To lose One’s faith – surpass
      • I saw no Way – The Heavens were stitched –
    • Sheet Two
      • Had I presumed to hope –
      • Sweet – You forgot – but I remembered
      • It struck me – every Day –
    • Sheet Three
      • The Future never spoke –
      • I gained it so –
      • Death sets a Thing significant
      • What I can do – I will –
    • Sheet Four
      • There is a flower that Bees prefer –
      • For Death – or rather
    • Sheet Five
      • Exhiliration – is within –
      • To fill a Gap
      • I’ve seen a Dying Eye
    • Sheet Six
      • No Rack can torture me –
      • Death is potential to that Man
      • Smiling back from Coronation
      • That I did always love
  • View at EDA Fascicle Thirty-Two
    • Sheet One
      • Triumph – may be of several kinds –
      • Don’t put up my Thread & Needle –
      • So well that I can live without –
      • At leisure is the Soul
    • Sheet Two
      • Sweet – safe – Houses –
      • Glee – The great storm is over –
      • It makes no difference abroad –
      • I asked no other thing –
    • Sheet Three
      • To know just how He suffered – would be dear –
      • It was too late for Man –
      • Forever – is composed of Nows –
    • Sheet Four
      • ’Twas a long Parting – but the time
      • Only God – detect the Sorrow –
      • Like Eyes that looked on Wastes –
      • A Tooth upon Our Peace
    • Sheet Five
      • I know Where Wells grow – Droughtless Wells –
      • The Tint I cannot take – is best –
    • Sheet Six
      • A Wife – at Daybreak – I shall be –
      • Why make it doubt – it hurts it so –
      • I live with Him – I see His face –
      • The power to be true to You,
  • View at EDA Fascicle Thirty-Three
    • Sheet One
      • The Way I read a Letter’s – this –
      • The Child’s faith is new –
      • Except the Heaven had come so near –
      • To My Small Hearth His fire came –
    • Sheet Two
      • My Portion is Defeat – today –
      • I am ashamed – I hide –
    • Sheet Three
      • I cannot live with You –
      • Size circumscribes – it has no room
    • Sheet Four
      • They put Us far apart –
      • Me from Myself – to banish –
      • Doom is the House without the Door –
    • Sheet Five
      • I should have been too glad, I see –
      • I meant to have but modest needs –
    • Sheet Six
      • I could suffice for Him, I knew –
      • You left me – Sire – two Legacies –
      • No Man can compass a Despair –
  • (linked by individual poem) Fascicle Thirty-Four
  • View at EDA Fascicle Thirty-Five
    • Sheet One
      • The Sun kept setting – setting – still
      • Shells from the Coast mistaking –
      • The Spirit is the Conscious Ear –
    • Sheet Two
      • If He were living – dare I ask –
      • As if the Sea should part
      • “Nature” is what We see –
      • Upon Concluded Lives
    • Sheet Three
      • Have any like Myself
      • Each Life converges to some Centre –
    • Sheet Four
      • Their Hight in Heaven comforts not –
      • Life – is what we make it –
      • The Judge is like the Owl –
    • Sheet Five
      • The Props assist the House –
      • You’ve seen Balloons set – Haven’t You?
      • The Zeros taught Us – Phosphorus –
      • A Thought went up my mind today –
    • Sheet Six
      • The Love a Life can show Below
      • A first Mute Coming –
      • Out of sight? What of that?
    • Sheet Seven
      • The Moon was but a Chin of Gold
      • You said that I “was Great” – one Day –
      • I many times thought Peace had come
  • View at EDA Fascicle Thirty-Six
    • Sheet One
      • No Other can reduce Our
      • Joy to have merited the Pain –
      • Bound a Trouble – and Lives will bear it –
    • Sheet Two
      • On a Columnar Self –
      • Nature – the Gentlest Mother is,
      • No Prisoner be –
      • Good Night – Which put the Candle Out?
    • Sheet Three
      • Behind Me – dips Eternity –
      • Sweet Mountains – Ye tell Me no lie –
      • It tossed – and tossed –
    • Sheet Four
      • Grief is a Mouse –
      • Let Us play Yesterday –
      • Alter! When the Hills do –
    • Sheet Five
      • Through the Straight Pass of Suffering
      • Precious to Me – She still shall be –
      • Dropped into the Ether Acre –
      • Ah, Teneriffe – Receding Mountain –
    • Sheet Six
      • Grief is a Mouse –
      • Let Us play Yesterday –
      • Alter! When the Hills do –
  • View at EDA Fascicle Thirty-Seven
    • Sheet One
      • Conscious am I in my Chamber –
      • You taught me Waiting with Myself –
      • Suspense – is Hostiler than Death –
    • Sheet Two
      • Drama’s Vitallest Expression is the Common Day
      • Four Trees – upon a solitary Acre –
      • The Grace – Myself – might not obtain –
    • Sheet Three
      • The Birds reported from the South –
      • Remorse – is Memory – awake –
    • Sheet Four
      • Never for Society
      • I sometimes drop it, for a Quick –
      • It dropped so low – in my Regard –
      • Autumn – overlooked my Knitting –
    • Sheet Five
      • Bloom upon the Mountain stated –
      • Publication – is the Auction
      • All but Death, Can be adjusted
    • Sheet Six
      • Growth of Man – like Growth of Nature –
      • My Worthiness is all my Doubt –
      • So the Eyes accost – and sunder
      • My Soul – accused Me – And I quailed –
  • View at EDA Fascicle Thirty-Eight
    • Sheet One
      • A Drop fell on the Apple Tree –
      • Her final Summer was it –
      • Who Giants know, with lesser Men
    • Sheet Two
      • By my Window have I for Scenery
      • Defrauded I a Butterfly –
      • “I want” – it pleaded – All its life –
    • Sheet Three
      • It was a Grave – yet bore no Stone –
      • She staked Her Feathers – Gained an Arc –
      • Despair’s advantage is achieved
      • Two – were immortal twice –
    • Sheet Four
      • I play at Riches – to appease
      • She rose to His Requirement – dropt
      • Time feels so vast that were it not
    • Sheet Five
      • Who Court obtain within Himself
      • No Notice gave She, but a Change –
      • They say that “Time assuages” –
    • Sheet Six
      • On the Bleakness of my Lot
      • A Plated Life – diversified
      • Expectation – is Contentment –
  • View at EDA Fascicle Thirty-Nine
    • Leaf One
      • None can experience stint
      • The hallowing of Pain
    • Sheet Two
      • Deprived of other Banquet,
      • It is a lonesome Glee –
      • If Blame be my side – forfeit Me –
      • Purple –
      • To be alive – is Power –
    • Sheet Three
      • The Loneliness One dare not sound –
      • Least Bee that brew – a Honey’s Weight
      • This that would greet – an hour ago –
      • The Service without Hope –
    • Sheet Four
      • I meant to find Her when I Came –
      • The Truth – is stirless –
      • A South Wind – has a pathos
      • To wait an Hour – is long –
      • There is an arid Pleasure –
    • Sheet Five
      • The Birds begun at Four o’clock –
      • Bereaved of all, I went abroad –
      • They have a little Odor – that to me
    • Sheet Six
      • Severer Service of myself
      • ’Twould ease – a Butterfly –
      • Such is the Force of Happiness –
  • View at EDA Fascicle Forty
    • Sheet One
      • The only news I know
      • Wert Thou but ill – that I might show thee
      • Midsummer, was it, when They died –
    • Sheet Two
      • The first Day that I was a Life
      • A nearness to Tremendousness –
      • “Unto Me”? I do not know you –
      • Denial – is the only fact
    • Sheet Three
      • All forgot for recollecting
      • I hide myself – within my flower,
      • Had I not This, or This, I said,
      • Between My Country – and the Others –
    • Sheet Four
      • The Admirations – and Contempts – of time –
      • Till Death – is narrow Loving –
      • ’Tis Sunrise – little Maid – Hast Thou
      • Pain – expands the Time –
    • Sheet Five
      • Fitter to see Him, I may be
      • He who in Himself believes –
    • Sheet Six
      • Color – Caste – Denomination –
      • I make His Crescent fill or lack –
      • Robbed by Death – but that was easy –
      • Unfulfilled to Observation –

The Unbound Sheets & Leaves

Unbound sheets and leaves are linked by sheet or by individual poem. Expand the list to follow the links.

  • Sheets 1–49
    • Sheet One
      • A Tongue – to tell Him I am true!
      • I could not prove the Years had feet –
      • What Soft – Cherubic Creatures –
    • Sheet Two
      • You know that Portrait in the Moon –
      • Funny – to be a Century –
      • Not probable – The barest Chance –
      • When Night is almost done –
    • Sheet Three
      • Love – is that later Thing than Death –
      • Struck, was I, nor yet by Lightning –
      • Patience – has a quiet Outer –
    • Sheet Four (not linked)
      • It bloomed and dropt, a Single Noon –
      • This Merit hath the Worst –
      • We can but follow to the Sun –
    • Sheet Five
      • This Dust, and its Feature –
      • I felt a Cleaving in my Mind –
      • Fairer through Fading – as the Day
      • What I see not, I better see –
    • Sheet Six
      • A Coffin – is a small Domain,
      • I learned – at least – what Home could be –
    • Sheet Seven
      • Experience is the Angled Road
      • ’Twas awkward, but it fi tted me –
      • The Soul’s distinct connection
      • Too little way the House must lie
    • Sheet Eight
    • Sheet Nine
    • Sheet Ten
      • As Frost is best conceived
      • To my quick ear the Leaves – conferred –
      • A Man may make a Remark –
      • A Door just opened on a street –
    • Sheet Eleven
      • What shall I do when the Summer troubles –
      • Drab Habitation of Whom?
      • As One does Sickness over
      • We met as Sparks – Diverging Flints
    • Sheet Twelve
    • Sheet Thirteen
      • They won’t frown always – some sweet Day
      • On that dear Frame the Years had worn
      • The Lady feeds Her little Bird
      • Soto! Explore thyself!
      • I stepped from Plank to Plank
    • Sheet Fourteen
    • Sheet Fifteen
      • The Poets light but Lamps –
      • An Everywhere of Silver
      • Our little Kinsmen – after Rain
      • Of Tolling Bell I ask the cause?
      • These tested Our Horizon –
    • Sheet Sixteen
      • As imperceptibly as Grief
      • As Willing lid o’er Weary Eye
      • Not all die early, dying young –
    • Sheet Seventeen
    • Sheet Eighteen
      • Always Mine!
      • I cannot buy it – ’tis not sold –
      • A Moth the hue of this
      • Good to hide, and hear ’em hunt!
    • Sheet Nineteen
      • Dying! To be afraid of thee
      • I made slow Riches but my Gain
      • Spring is the Period
      • Before He comes
      • Twice had Summer her fair Verdure
    • Sheet Twenty
      • Unable are the Loved to die
      • Finite – to fail, but infinite – to Venture –
      • Just as He spoke it from his Hands
      • The good Will of a Flower
      • I sing to use the Waiting,
      • Her Grace is all she has –
      • When the Astronomer stops seeking/li>
    • Sheet Twenty-One
      • Absent Place – an April Day –
      • Apology for Her
      • The Heart has narrow Banks
      • When One has given up One’s life
      • The Veins of other Flowers
    • Sheet Twenty-Two
      • A Light exists in Spring
      • Banish Air from Air –
      • Like Men and Women Shadows walk
      • How far is it to Heaven?
    • Sheet Twenty-Three
      • Truth – is as old as God –
      • A Death blow is a Life blow, to Some,
      • Two Travellers perishing in Snow
      • Fame is the tint that Scholars leave
      • Escaping backward to perceive
    • Sheet Twenty-Four
      • The Mountain sat upon the Plain
      • Peace is a fiction of our Faith –
      • To this World she returned
      • Not what We did, shall be the test
      • Death is a Dialogue between
      • The largest Fire ever known
    • Sheet Twenty-Five
      • And this, of all my Hopes
      • Good to have had them lost
      • Besides this May
      • I cannot be ashamed
    • Sheet Twenty-Six
      • Faith – is the Pierless Bridge
      • His Feet are shod with Gauze –
      • Love – is anterior to Life –
      • Only a Shrine, but Mine –
      • If I can stop one Heart from breaking
    • Sheet Twenty-Seven
      • Bee! I’m expecting you!
      • Satisfaction – is the Agent
      • Here, where the Daisies fit my Head
      • Where I am not afraid to go
      • Her little Parasol to lift
    • Sheet Twenty-Eight
      • Said Death to Passion
      • Air has no Residence, no Neighbor,
      • We’ll pass without the parting
      • His Bill an Augur is
      • To undertake is to achieve
    • Sheet Twenty-Nine
      • Three Weeks passed since I had seen Her –
      • A Sickness of this World it most occasions
      • Partake as doth the Bee –
      • He scanned it – Staggered –
      • The missing All, prevented Me
    • Sheet Thirty
      • I heard, as if I had no Ear
      • Not so the infinite Relations – Below
      • Somewhat, to hope for,
      • Spring comes on the World –
      • Lest this be Heaven indeed
      • Just to be Rich
    • Sheet Thirty-One
      • The Stimulus, beyond the Grave
      • Aurora is the effort
      • Dying at my music!
      • There is no Silence in the Earth – so silent
      • Bind me – I still can sing –
      • The first We knew of Him was Death –
      • Falsehood of Thee, could I suppose
      • How still the Bells in Steeples stand
    • Sheet Thirty-Two
      • I was a Phebe – nothing more –
      • Knows how to forget!
      • ’Tis Anguish grander than Delight –
    • Sheet Thirty-Three
      • Crumbling is not an instant’s Act
      • Not to discover weakness is
      • Best Things dwell out of Sight
      • No other can reduce
    • Sheet Thirty-Four
      • Superfluous were the Sun
      • This was in the White of the Year –
      • The Fingers of the Light
      • Ideals are the Fairy Oil
    • Sheet Thirty-Five
      • The Soul should always stand ajar
      • Up Life’s Hill with my little Bundle
      • She rose as high as His Occasion
      • There is a Zone whose even Years
      • Which is best? Heaven –
    • Sheet Thirty-Six
      • A bold, inspiriting Bird
      • Too scanty ’twas to die for you,
      • Did We abolish Frost
      • Were it but Me that gained the Hight –
      • The Hills in Purple syllables
      • To die – without the Dying
    • Sheet Thirty-Seven
      • Who saw no Sunrise cannot say
      • I had a daily Bliss
      • My Season’s furthest Flower –
      • Trudging to Eden, looking backward,
      • Far from Love the Heavenly Father
    • Sheet Thirty-Eight
      • I knew that I had gained
      • It rises – passes – on our South
      • So large my Will
      • The Products of my Farm are these
      • The Dying need but little, Dear,
    • Sheet Thirty-Nine
      • Bloom – is Result – to meet a Flower
      • My Heart upon a little Plate
      • ’Twas my one Glory –
      • Nor Mountain hinder Me
    • Sheet Forty
      • When they come back – if Blossoms do –
      • Superiority to Fate
      • Revolution is the Pod
      • We learn in the Retreating
    • Sheet Forty-One
      • What Twigs We held by –
      • We miss a Kinsman more
      • Ended, ere it begun –
      • Myself can read the Telegrams
    • Sheet Forty-Two
      • I am afraid to own a Body –
      • The Well upon the Brook
      • It was not Saint – it was too large –
      • Because ’twas Riches I could own,
      • Themself are all I have –
      • To Whom the Mornings stand for Nights,
    • Sheet Forty-Three
      • Could I but ride indefinite
      • Embarrassment of one another
      • While it is alive
      • To One denied to drink
    • Sheet Forty-Four
      • Uncertain lease – developes lustre
      • Noon – is the Hinge of Day –
      • This Chasm, Sweet, upon my life
      • My best Acquaintances are those
    • Sheet Forty-Five
      • The Sun and Moon must make their haste –
      • As the Starved Maelstrom laps the Navies
      • Ribbons of the Year –
      • Death leaves Us homesick, who behind,
    • Sheet Forty-Six
      • Crisis is a Hair
      • Under the Light, yet under,
      • Away from Home are some and I –
      • A Burdock twitched my Gown
    • Sheet Forty-Seven
      • Who occupies this House?
      • The Chemical conviction
      • The Hollows round His eager Eyes
    • Sheet Forty-Eight
      • A loss of something ever felt I –
      • Herein a Blossom lies –
      • What did They do since I saw Them?
      • As plan for Noon and plan for Night
    • Sheet Forty-Nine
      • Of Consciousness, her awful mate
      • A Cloud withdrew from the Sky
      • Of Silken Speech and Specious Shoe
      • How fortunate the Grave –
      • How happy I was if I could forget
  • Sheets/Leaves 50–96
    • Sheet Fifty
      • Experiment to Me
      • That Such have died enable Us
      • Sang from the Heart, Sire,
      • Fate slew Him, but He did not drop –
      • Who is the East?
    • Sheet Fifty-One
      • Nature rarer uses Yellow
      • To help our Bleaker Parts
      • I’ve dropped my Brain –
      • The Opening and the Close
    • Sheet Fifty-Two
      • This quiet Dust was Gentlemen and Ladies
      • There is a June when Corn is cut
      • To own the Art within the Soul
      • There is a finished feeling
    • Sheet Fifty-Three
      • The Robin is the One
      • ’Twas Crisis – All the length had passed –
      • We outgrow love, like other things
      • When I have seen the Sun emerge
    • Sheet Fifty-Four
      • A narrow Fellow in the Grass
      • Ashes denote that Fire was –
      • The Leaves like Women, interchange
    • Sheet Fifty-Five
      • At Half past Three, a single Bird
      • The last Night that She lived
      • If Nature smiles – the Mother must
    • Sheet Fifty-Six
      • Dew – is the Freshet in the Grass –
      • Perception of an Object costs
      • The Crickets sang
      • Of the Heart that goes in, and closes the Door
    • Sheet Fifty-Seven
      • These are the Signs to Nature’s Inns –
      • My Cocoon tightens – Colors teaze –
      • The Bustle in a House
      • The Sun went down – no Man looked on –
    • Sheet Fifty-Eight
      • One Day is there of the Series
      • The Luxury to apprehend
      • The Robin for the Crumb
      • He outstripped Time with but a Bout,
    • Sheet Fifty-Nine
      • This is a Blossom of the Brain –
      • All Circumstances are the Frame
      • A Shade upon the mind there passes
      • It is an honorable Thought
    • Sheet Sixty
      • This Consciousness that is aware
      • From Us She wandered now a Year,
      • The Sunset stopped on Cottages
      • Ample make this Bed
    • Sheet Sixty-One
      • Let down the Bars, Oh Death –
      • Reportless Subjects, to the Quick
      • The Definition of Beauty is
      • Pain has but one Acquaintance
      • Gratitude – is not the mention
    • Leaf Sixty-Two
      • Of Paul and Silas it is said
    • Leaf Sixty-Three
      • The Voice that stands for Floods to me
    • Leaf Sixty-Four
      • “Remember me” implored the Thief!
    • Leaf Sixty-Five
      • Somehow myself survived the Night
    • Leaf Sixty-Six
      • Because He loves Her
    • Leaf Sixty-Seven
      • Some we see no more, Tenements of Wonder
    • Leaf Sixty-Eight
      • Its Hour with itself
    • Leaf Sixty-Nine
      • My Triumph lasted till the Drums
    • Leaf Seventy
      • Like Trains of Cars on Tracks of Plush
    • Leaf Seventy-One
      • Not any higher stands the Grave
    • Leaf Seventy-Two
      • The harm of Years is on him –
    • Leaf Seventy-Three
      • A Wind that rose though not a Leaf
    • Leaf Seventy-Four
      • I worked for chaff and earning Wheat
    • Leaf Seventy-Five
      • The Bone that has no Marrow,
    • Leaf Seventy-Six
      • Who goes to dine must take his Feast
    • Leaf Seventy-Seven
      • The Popular Heart is a Cannon first –
    • Leaf Seventy-Eight
      • It came at last but prompter Death
    • Leaf Seventy-Nine
      • The pungent Atom in the Air
    • Leaf Eighty
      • Immortal is an ample word
    • Leaf Eighty-One
      • Are Friends Delight or Pain?
    • Leaf Eighty-Two
      • The Mountains stood in Haze –
    • Leaf Eighty-Three
      • Somewhere upon the general Earth
    • Sheet Eighty-Four
      • Step lightly on this narrow spot –
      • I cannot want it more –
    • Sheet Eighty-Five
      • The Days that we can spare
      • ’Twas fighting for his Life he was –
      • Frigid and sweet Her parting Face –
      • An honest Tear
    • Sheet Eighty-Six
      • I should not dare to be so sad
      • Remembrance has a Rear and Front.
      • Because my Brook is fluent
    • Sheet Eighty-Seven
      • A little Dog that wags his tail
      • Oh Shadow on the Grass!
      • To make Routine a Stimulus
    • Sheet Eighty-Eight
      • To disappear enhances –
      • So much of Heaven has gone from Earth
    • Sheet Eighty-Nine
      • So I pull my Stockings off
      • What we see we know somewhat
      • The Past is such a curious Creature
      • A prompt – executive Bird is the Jay –
    • Sheet Ninety
      • Now I knew I lost her –
      • The Sea said
    • Leaf Ninety-One
      • September’s Baccalaureates
    • Sheet Ninety-Two
      • The Way to know the Bobolink
      • Not with a Club, the Heart is broken
    • Sheet Ninety-Three
      • The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants –
      • A Bee his Burnished Carriage
    • Sheet Ninety-Four
      • A Dew sufficed itself –
      • The Spider as an Artist
      • Winter is good – his Hoar Delights
    • Sheet Ninety-Five
      • Delight’s Despair at setting
      • Which is the best – the Moon or the Crescent?
      • A Rat surrendered here
      • This dirty – little – Heart
    • Sheet Ninety-Six
      • How News must feel when travelling
    • Sheet Ninety-Seven
      • The last of Summer is Delight
      • The Heart is the Capital of the Mind
      • Not any more to be lacked –
    • Sheet Ninety-Eight
      • After all Birds have been investigated
      • The Mind lives on the Heart
      • That sacred Closet when you sweep –

View additional works by and about Emily Dickinson from Harvard University Press »

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