Poems by Emily Dickinson, Third Series

“Not knowing when the dawn will comeI open every door.””

— Emily Dickinson

“I'm nobody! Who are you? Are you nobody, too? Then there ’s a pair of us”

— Emily Dickinson

“Nature is a haunted house--but Art--is a house that tries to be haunted.””

— Emily Dickinson

“A word is deadWhen it is said,Some say. I say it justBegins to liveThat day.””

— Emily Dickinson

“One need not be a chamber to be haunted.””

— Emily Dickinson

“Hope is the thing with feathersThat 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 stormThat could abash the little birdThat kept so many warm.I've heard it in the chilliest landAnd on the strangest sea;Yet, never, in extremity,It asked a crumb of me.””

— Emily Dickinson

“Love is anterior to life, posterior to death, initial of creation, and the exponent of breath.””

— Emily Dickinson

“If you were coming in the fall,I'd brush the summer by,With half a smile and half a spurn,As housewives do a fly.If I could see you in a year,I'd wind the months in balls,And put them each in separate drawers,Until their time befalls.””

— Emily Dickinson

“I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,And Mourners to and froKept treading – treading – till it seemedThat Sense was breaking through – And when they all were seated,A Service, like a Drum – Kept beating – beating – till I thoughtMy Mind was going numb – And then I heard them lift a BoxAnd creak across my SoulWith 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 RaceWrecked, 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 –””

— Emily Dickinson