Essential Emily:
An Anthology
The class created
mini-anthologies in five groups of four students. Each group was
responsible for distributing its list of the twenty most important Emily
Dickinson poems and for explaining the criteria by which the
selections were made. Each poem was indentified according to the
number assigned by Thomas H. Johnson in The Complete
Poems of Emily Dickinson.
Below is the culmulative class list of the most essential Dickinson poems.
Click here to view each group's individual
selections and
explanations.
Poems Chosen
Three
Times
251: Over
the
fence -
315: He fumbles
at
your Soul
339: I tend my
flowers for thee
-
Poems Chosen
Twice
162: My
River runs to thee -
190: He was
weak, and I was strong
- then -
241: I like a
look of Agony,
324: Some keep
the Sabbath going to
Church -
435: Much
Madness is divinest Sense
-
568: We learned
the Whole of
Love -
712: Because I
could not stop for
Death -
1670: In
Winter in my Room
Poems Chosen
Once
#14: One Sister have I in our house,
#67: Success is counted sweetest
#76: Exultation is the going
#84: Her breast is fit for pearls
#91: So bashful when I spied her!
#115: What Inn is this
#127: "Houses" - so the Wise Men tell me -
#139: Soul, Wilt thou toss again?
#144: She bore it till the simple veins
#158: Dying! Dying in the night!
#182: If I shouldn't be alive
#185: "Faith" is a fine invention
#216: Safe in their Alabaster Chambers -
#217: Savior! I've no one else to tell -
#239: "Heaven" - is what I cannot reach!
#248: Why - do they shut Me out of Heaven?
#249: Wild Nights - Wild Nights!
#263: A single Screw of Flesh
#281: 'Tis so appalling - it exhilarates -
#303: The Soul selects her own Society -
#314: Nature - sometimes sears a Sapling -
#334: All the letters I can write
#351: I felt my life with both my hands
#354: From Cocoon forth a Butterfly
#372: I know lives, I could miss
#377: To lose one's faith - surpass
#386: Answer July -
#419: We grow accustomed to the Dark -
#444: It feels a shame to be Alive -
#446: I showed her Heights she never saw -
#449: I died for Beauty - but was scarce
#453: Love - though art high -
#454: It was given to me by the Gods -
#465: I heard a Fly buzz - when I died -
#469: The Red - Blaze - is the Morning -
#494: Going to Him! Happy letter!
#510: It was not Death, for I stood up,
#518: Her sweet Weight on my Heart a Night
#520: I started Early - Took my Dog -
#549: That I did always love
#573: The Test of Love - is Death -
#585: I like to see it lap the Miles -
#636: The Way I read a Letter's - this -
#640: I cannot live with You -
#668: "Nature" is what we see -
#670: One need not be a Chamber - to be Haunted -
#677: To be alive - is Power -
#721: Behind Me - dips Eternity -
#750: Growth of Man - like Growth of Nature -
#773: Deprived of other Banquet,
#809: Unable are the Loved to die
#816: A Death Blow is a Life blow to Some
#836: Truth - is as old as God -
#861: Split the Lark - and you'll find the Music -
#882: A Shade upon the mind there passes
#924: Love - is that later Thing than Death -
#1003: Dying at my music!
#1099: My Cocoon tightens - Colors tease -
#1163: God made no act without a cause,
#1219: Now I knew I lost her -
#1270: Is Heaven a Physician?
#1290: The most pathetic thing I do
#1318: Frigid and sweet Her parting Face -
#1332: Pink - small - and punctual -
#1440: The healed Heart shows its shallow scar
#1568: To see her is a Picture -
#1657: Eden is that old-fashioned House
#1677: On my volcano grows the Grass
#1680: Sometimes with the Heart
#1688: The Hills erect their Purple Heads
#1702: Today or this noon
#1719: God is indeed a jealous God -
#1737: Rearrange a "Wife's" affection!
#1751: There comes an hour when begging stops,
251
Over the fence -
Strawberries - grow -
Over the fence -
I could climb - if I tried, I know -
Berries are nice!
But - if I stained my Apron -
God would certainly scold!
Oh, dear, - I guess if he were a Boy -
He'd - climb - if He could!
315
He fumbles at your Soul
As Players at the Keys
Before they drop full Music on -
He stuns you by degrees -
Prepare your brittle Nature
For the Ethereal Blow
By fainter Hammers - further heard -
Then nearer - Then so slow
Your Breath has time to straighten -
Your brain - to bubble Cool -
Deals - One - imperial - Thunderbolt -
That scalps your naked Soul -
When Winds take Forests in their Paws -
The Universe - is still -
339
I tend my flowers for thee -
Bright Absentee!
My Fuchsia's Coral Seams
Rip - while the Sower - dreams -
Geraniums - tint - and spot -
Low Daisies - dot -
My Cactus - splits her beard
To show her throat -
Carnations - tip their spice -
And Bees - pick up -
A Hyacinth - I hid -
Puts out a Ruffled Head -
And odors fall
From flasks - so small -
You marvel how they held -
Globe Roses - break their satin flake -
Upon my Garden floor -
Yet - thou - not there -
I had as lief they bore
No Crimson - more -
Thy flower - be gay -
Her Lord - away!
It ill becometh me -
I'll dwell in Calyx - Gray -
How modestly - alway -
Thy Daisy -
Draped for thee!
162
My River runs to thee -
Blue Sea! Wilt welcome me?
My river waits reply -
Oh sea - look graciously -
I'll fetch the Brooks
From spotted nooks -
Say - Sea - Take Me!
190
He was weak, and I was strong - then -
So He let me lead him in -
I was weak, and He was strong then -
So I let him lead me - Home.
'Twasn't far - the door was near -
'Twasn't dark - for He went - too -
'Twasn't loud, for He said nought -
That was all I cared to know.
Day knocked - and we must part -
Neither - was strongest - now -
He strove - and I strove - too -
We didn't do it - tho'!
241
I like a look of Agony,
Because I know it's true -
Men do not sham Convulsion,
Nor simulate, a Throe -
The Eyes glaze once - and that is Death -
Impossible to feign
The Beads upon the Forehead
By homely Anguish strung.
324
Some keep the Sabbath going to Church -
I keep it, staying at Home -
With a Bobolink for a Chorister -
And an Orchard, for a Dome -
Some keep the Sabbath in Surplice -
I just wear my Wings -
And instead of tolling the Bell, for Church,
Our little Sexton - sings.
God preached, a noted Clergyman -
And the sermon is never long,
So instead of getting to Heaven, at last -
I'm going, all along.
435
Much Madness is divinest Sense -
To a discerning Eye -
Much Sense - the starkest Madness -
'Tis the Majority
In this, as All, prevail -
Assent - and you are sane -
Demur - you're straightway dangerous -
And handled with a Chain -
568
We learned the Whole of Love -
The Alphabet - the Words -
A Chapter - then the mighty Book -
Then - Revelation closed -
But in Each Other's eyes
An Ignorance beheld -
Diviner than the Childhood's -
And each to each, a Child -
Attempted to expound
What Neither - understood -
Alas, that Wisdom is so large -
And Truth - so manifold!
712
Because I could not stop for Death -
He kindly stopped for me -
The Carriage had 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 -
Since then - 'tis Centuries - and yet
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses' Heads
Were toward Eternity -
1670
In Winter in my Room
I came upon a Worm -
Pink, lank and warm -
But as he was a worm
And worms presume
Not quite with him at home -
Secured him by a string
To something neighboring
And went along.
A Trifle afterward
A thing occured
I'd not believe it if I heard
But state with creeping blood -
A snake with mottles rare
Surveyed my chamber floor
In feauture as the worm before
But ringed with power -
The very string with which
I tied him - too
When he was mean and new
That string was there -
I shrank - "How fair you are"!
Propitiation's claw -
"Afraid," he hissed
"Of me"?
"Not cordiality" -
He fathomed me -
Then to a Rhythm Slim
Secreted in his Form
As Patterns swim
Projected him.
That time I flew
Both eyes his way
Lest he persue
Nor ever ceased to run
Till in a distant Town
Towns on from mine
I set me down
This was a dream.
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