Emily Dickinson Quotes

American poet (1830-1886)

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. Virtually unknown in her lifetime, Dickinson has come to be regarded as one of the greatest American poets of the 19th century. Although she wrote (at latest count) 1789 poems, only a few of them were published in her lifetime, all anonymously, and some perhaps without her knowledge.

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Birth Name: Emily Elizabeth Dickinson

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Till I loved I never liked enough.

I wonder if it hurts to live,
And if they have to try,
And whether, could they choose between,
They would not rather die.

That Love is all there is
Is all we know of Love,
It is enough, the freight should be
Proportioned to the groove.

A charm invests a face
Imperfectly beheld, — The lady dare not lift her veil
For fear it be dispelled.

But peers beyond her mesh,
And wishes, and denies, — Lest interview annul a want
That image satisfies.

The bustle in a house
The morning after death
Is solemnest of industries
Enacted upon earth, — The sweeping up the heart,
And putting love away
We shall not want to use again
Until eternity

A precious, mouldering pleasure ’t is
To meet an antique book,
In just the dress his century wore;
A privilege, I think.

The Soul selects her own Society — Then — shuts the Door — To her divine Majority — Present no more — Unmoved — she notes the Chariots — pausing — At her low Gate — Unmoved — an Emperor be kneeling
Upon her Mat — I've known her — from an ample nation — Choose One — Then — close the Valves of her attention — Like Stone —

Your absence insanes me so — I do not feel so peaceful, when you are gone from me.

I felt a Cleaving in my Mind — As if my Brain had split — I tried to match it — Seam by Seam — But could not make it fit.

The thought behind, I strove to join
Unto the thought before — But Sequence ravelled out of Sound
Like Balls — upon a Floor.

I took my Power in my Hand — And went against the World — 'Twas not so much as David — had — But I — was twice as bold — I aimed by Pebble — but Myself
Was all the one that fell — Was it Goliath — was too large — Or was myself — too small?

Faith — is the Pierless Bridge
Supporting what We see
Unto the Scene that We do not — Too slender for the eye
It bears the Soul as bold
As it were rocked in Steel
With Arms of Steel at either side — It joins — behind the Veil
To what, could We presume
The Bridge would cease to be
To Our far, vacillating Feet
A first Necessity.

I need you more and more, and the great world grows wider, and dear ones fewer and fewer, every day that you stay away. My heart goes wandering around and calls for Susie...My heart is full of you; none other than you are in my thoughts, yet when I seek to say to you something not for the world, words fail me. If you were here, we need not talk at all for our eyes would whisper for us and, your hand fast in mine, we would not ask for language.

Fortune befriends the bold.

To travel far, there is no better ship than a book.

"Her breast is fit for pearls,
But I was not a "Diver" -
Her brow is fit for thrones
But I have not a crest,
Her heart is fit for home-
I- a Sparrow- build there
Sweet of twigs and twine
My perennial nest."