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Emily Dickinson: Selected Poetry

At our September 9, 1999 meeting, we discussed the extraordinary poetry of Emily Dickinson. If you're looking for a place to begin, or to review, her works, you might find the following list of about 100, of her 1,775 poems, useful. I've included all of her best-known works. Also, titles preceded by an asterisk (*) are noted by Lillian Faderman, in her anthology Chloe Plus Olivia, as some of Dickinson's most overtly lesbian poems.

Note: The numbers preceding each title refer to the definitive texts edited (from the original manscripts) by Thomas H. Johnson.


24 There is a morn by men unseen--
49 I never lost as much but twice
84 * Her breast is fit for pearls
107 'Twas such a little--little boat
125 For each ecstatic instant
156 * You love me--you are sure--
174 At last, to be identified!
211 Come slowly--Eden!
214 I taste a liquor never brewed--
216 Safe in their Alabaster Chambers--
249 Wild Nights--Wild Nights!
254 "Hope" is the thing with feathers--
258 There's a certain Slant of light
271 A Solemn thing--it was--I said--
280 I felt a Funeral, in my Brain
281 'Tis so appalling--it exhilarates--
282 How noteless Men, and Pleiads, stand
288 I'm Nobody! Who are you?
289 I Know some lonely Houses off the Road
293 I got so I could hear his name--
303 The Soul selects her own Society
312 Her--"last Poems"--
341 After great pain, a formal feeling comes--
365 Dare you see a Soul at the White Heat?
384 No Rack can torture me--
392 Through the Dark Sod--as Education
401 What Soft--Cherubic Creatures--
410 The first Day's Night had come
414 'Twas like a Maelstrom, with a notch
425 Good Morning--Midnight--
435 Much Madness is divinest Sense--
441 This is my letter to the World
446 * I showed her Hights she never saw--
448 This was a Poet--It is That
449 I died for Beauty, but was scarce
458 * Like Eyes that looked on Wastes--
460 I know where Wells grow--Droughtless Wells--
462 Why make it doubt--it hurts it so--
465 I heard a Fly buzz--when I died--
508 I'm ceded--I've stopped being Theirs--
510 It was not death, for I stood up
512 The Soul has Bandaged moments--
518 * Her sweet Weight on my Heart a Night
528 Mine--by the Right of the White Election!
532 I tried to think a lonelier Thing
569 I reckon--when I count at all--
579 I had been hungry, all the Years--
585 I like to see it lap the Miles--
593 l think I was enchanted
613 They shut me up in Prose--
615 Our journey had advanced--
620 It makes no difference abroad--
621 I asked no other thing
624 Forever--is composed of Nows--
627 The Tint I cannot take--is best--
631 * Ourselves were wed one summer--dear--
633 When Bells stop ringing--Church--begins--
640 I cannot live with You--
642 Me from Myself--to banish--
650 Pain--has an Element of Blank--
657 I dwell in Possibility--
669 No Romance sold unto
670 One need not be a Chamber--to be Haunted--
701 A Thought went up my mind today--
709 Publication--is the Auction
712 Because I could not stop for Death--
722 Sweet Mountains--Ye tell Me no lie--
728 Let Us play Yesterday
732 She rose to His Requirement--dropt
744 Remorse--is Memory--awake--
745 Renunciation--is a piercing Virtue--
747 It dropped so low in my regard
754 My Life had stood--a Loaded Gun--
764 Presentiment--is that long Shadow--on the Lawn
777 The Loneliness One dare not sound--
845 * Be Mine the Doom--
917 Love--is anterior to Life--
919 If I can stop one Heart from breaking
941 * The Lady feeds Her little Bird
959 A loss of something ever felt I--
976 Death is a Dialogue between
986 A narrow Fellow in the Grass
1026 The Dying need but little, Dear
1052 I never saw a Moor
1068 Further in Summer than the Birds
1072 Title divine--is mine!
1075 The Sky is low--the Clouds are mean
1076 Just once--oh least request!
1081 Superiority to Fate
1100 The last Night that She lived
1129 Tell all the Truth but tell it slant--
1138 A Spider sewed at Night
1219 * Now I knew I lost her--
1241 The Lilac is an ancient shrub
1318 * Frigid and sweet Her parting Face--
1400 What mystery pervades a well!
1445 Death is the supple Suitor
1540 As imperceptibly as Grief
1545 The Bible is an antique Volume--
1551 Those--dying then
1562 Her Losses made her Gains ashamed--
1568 * To see her is a Picture--
1651 A Word made Flesh is seldom
1657 Eden is that old-fashioned House
1670 In Winter in my Room
1683 * That she forgot me was the least
1705 Volcanoes be in Siciliy
1732 My life closed twice before its close
1737 Rearrange a "Wife's" affection!
1755 To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee

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