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Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson
Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found here
Introduction by George Gesner. Includes a selection of Emily Dickinson's handwritten poems.
Introduction by George Gesner. Includes a selection of Emily Dickinson's handwritten poems.
281 pages, Hardcover
Published December 14, 2024
58 people are currently reading
191 people want to read
About the author
Emily Dickinson
1,558 books6,883 followersEmily Dickinson was an American poet who, despite the fact that less than a dozen of her nearly eighteen hundred poems were published during her lifetime, is widely considered one of the most original and influential poets of the 19th century.
Dickinson was born to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life. After she studied at the Amherst Academy for seven years in her youth, she spent a short time at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary before returning to her family's house in Amherst. Thought of as an eccentric by the locals, she became known for her penchant for white clothing and her reluctance to greet guests or, later in life, even leave her room. Most of her friendships were therefore carried out by correspondence.
Although Dickinson was a prolific private poet, fewer than a dozen of her nearly eighteen hundred poems were published during her lifetime.The work that was published during her lifetime was usually altered significantly by the publishers to fit the conventional poetic rules of the time. Dickinson's poems are unique for the era in which she wrote; they contain short lines, typically lack titles, and often use slant rhyme as well as unconventional capitalization and punctuation.Many of her poems deal with themes of death and immortality, two recurring topics in letters to her friends.
Although most of her acquaintances were probably aware of Dickinson's writing, it was not until after her death in 1886—when Lavinia, Emily's younger sister, discovered her cache of poems—that the breadth of Dickinson's work became apparent. Her first collection of poetry was published in 1890 by personal acquaintances Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd, both of whom heavily edited the content.
A complete and mostly unaltered collection of her poetry became available for the first time in 1955 when The Poems of Emily Dickinson was published by scholar Thomas H. Johnson. Despite unfavorable reviews and skepticism of her literary prowess during the late 19th and early 20th century, critics now consider Dickinson to be a major American poet.
For more information, please see http://www.answers.com/topic/emily-di...
Dickinson was born to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life. After she studied at the Amherst Academy for seven years in her youth, she spent a short time at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary before returning to her family's house in Amherst. Thought of as an eccentric by the locals, she became known for her penchant for white clothing and her reluctance to greet guests or, later in life, even leave her room. Most of her friendships were therefore carried out by correspondence.
Although Dickinson was a prolific private poet, fewer than a dozen of her nearly eighteen hundred poems were published during her lifetime.The work that was published during her lifetime was usually altered significantly by the publishers to fit the conventional poetic rules of the time. Dickinson's poems are unique for the era in which she wrote; they contain short lines, typically lack titles, and often use slant rhyme as well as unconventional capitalization and punctuation.Many of her poems deal with themes of death and immortality, two recurring topics in letters to her friends.
Although most of her acquaintances were probably aware of Dickinson's writing, it was not until after her death in 1886—when Lavinia, Emily's younger sister, discovered her cache of poems—that the breadth of Dickinson's work became apparent. Her first collection of poetry was published in 1890 by personal acquaintances Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd, both of whom heavily edited the content.
A complete and mostly unaltered collection of her poetry became available for the first time in 1955 when The Poems of Emily Dickinson was published by scholar Thomas H. Johnson. Despite unfavorable reviews and skepticism of her literary prowess during the late 19th and early 20th century, critics now consider Dickinson to be a major American poet.
For more information, please see http://www.answers.com/topic/emily-di...
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
February 14, 2025
I’m not an experienced poetry reader but I have always wanted to read Emily Dickinson, so these 256 pages filled with her poems were a delight to get through.
With the amount of poems she wrote some are obviously gonna be more impressive than others. But I liked reading a few of these every now and then and I’m just fascinated by her story in general!
•••
A door just opened on a street —
I, lost, was passing by —
An instant's width of warmth disclosed,
And wealth, and company.
The door as sudden shut, and I,
I, lost, was passing by, —
Lost doubly, but by contrast most,
Enlightening misery.
•••
My river runs to thee :
Blue sea, wilt welcome me?
My river waits reply.
Oh sea, look graciously !
I'll fetch thee brooks
From spotted nooks, —
Say, sea,
Take me!
With the amount of poems she wrote some are obviously gonna be more impressive than others. But I liked reading a few of these every now and then and I’m just fascinated by her story in general!
•••
A door just opened on a street —
I, lost, was passing by —
An instant's width of warmth disclosed,
And wealth, and company.
The door as sudden shut, and I,
I, lost, was passing by, —
Lost doubly, but by contrast most,
Enlightening misery.
•••
My river runs to thee :
Blue sea, wilt welcome me?
My river waits reply.
Oh sea, look graciously !
I'll fetch thee brooks
From spotted nooks, —
Say, sea,
Take me!
November 14, 2024
I have never been much for poetry, but I saw this collection in one of our local little libraries (a mailbox-like house for folks to take or leave a book). I wasn't always able to understand the poems immediately because there were words I didn't know, or because the structure and meaning were not so basic. But I found the poetry inspiring and have some begun to write a little of my own for myself.
Another thing that made the book special is that folks who had had this book first added some clips of articles related to Emily or slips of paper with their own thoughts or poems. It was neat to see and experience how others were inspired too.
Another thing that made the book special is that folks who had had this book first added some clips of articles related to Emily or slips of paper with their own thoughts or poems. It was neat to see and experience how others were inspired too.
July 29, 2019
I'm not a huge poetry buff, so my opinion may not be worth much, but I did really enjoy Emily Dickinson. She's not too stuffy or verbose, though some of the language was older than I'm used to reading. I think I would have appreciated a version with footnotes or comments on the poems to help me better understand them.
Ultimately, I finished this wanting to know more about her. It's obvious how much she enjoyed nature, but her poems on love and romance left me desperate to know more about the object of her desires! Her poems on death were especially moving. It's hard sometimes to determine what she believes (if anything) about life after death. One poem suggests one thing, one another (and maybe her views changed over time). But her grief is definitely real. It made me want to know who she lost.
Overall, I enjoyed her tone and wit a lot. Her word choices are both stunning and unusual, and she's not afraid to put anything to verse. I bet she was a fascinating woman! Her inner world came across as very deep, contemplative, and easily in love with the simple beauties of life and nature. I wish I could have met her.
Ultimately, I finished this wanting to know more about her. It's obvious how much she enjoyed nature, but her poems on love and romance left me desperate to know more about the object of her desires! Her poems on death were especially moving. It's hard sometimes to determine what she believes (if anything) about life after death. One poem suggests one thing, one another (and maybe her views changed over time). But her grief is definitely real. It made me want to know who she lost.
Overall, I enjoyed her tone and wit a lot. Her word choices are both stunning and unusual, and she's not afraid to put anything to verse. I bet she was a fascinating woman! Her inner world came across as very deep, contemplative, and easily in love with the simple beauties of life and nature. I wish I could have met her.
December 28, 2021
"The meadows mine, the mountains mine, --
All forests, stintless stars,
As much of noon as I could take
Between my finite eyes"
This collection was a delight. I think Emily Dickinson shines when she writes about nature. Maybe it's partly because her nature poetry is a little more accessible than some of her other poems, but there's also an effortlessness that's special to it.
All forests, stintless stars,
As much of noon as I could take
Between my finite eyes"
This collection was a delight. I think Emily Dickinson shines when she writes about nature. Maybe it's partly because her nature poetry is a little more accessible than some of her other poems, but there's also an effortlessness that's special to it.
June 4, 2022
Something about Dickinson's poems make them so easy to read and re-read and re-read. While many people obsess with her beautiful poems of death, they account for less than a third of her work. She loved nature and all its beauty.
January 6, 2024
Beautiful… Emily Dickinson has such a way with words. This was a delight to read.
March 12, 2025
Summary: A republication of Dickinson’s poems as first published in three series shortly after her death.
Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a literary scholar, received four poems from a women in Amherst in 1862. He returned them but kept in touch with Emily Dickinson. She continued to correspond and write poetry but never published during her lifetime. After her death in 1886, Dickinson’s sister found a box containing hundreds of her poems and thought them worthy of publication. She sought out Mabel Loomis Todd, the wife of a local professor who sought the help of Higginson. He edited her work, dealing with issues of rhyme, metre, line arrangements, and dialect. The two published a first series in 1890 and a second in 1891. Mabel Loomis Todd published a third series on her own in 1896.
This collection is based on those works but is not exhaustive. It follows four categories from the original editions: Life, Love, Nature, and Time and Eternity. It includes prefaces from each of the three series and a facsimile of “Renunciation” in Dickinson’s script from the first series. And it also includes artwork from the original publications. However it does not give indications of which poems were included in each series.
I don’t feel adept enough in poetry to offer a critical review of someone of Dickinson’s stature. So I will highlight poems from each section I particularly noticed. Under “Life,” the poems are focused on Dickinson’s observations of life, which are broad despite her secluded existence. Poem VI could be a motto with its lines “If I can stop one heart from breaking,/I shall not live in vain;.” “Hope, 1” has the memorable image of “Hope is the thing with feathers.” Finally, in an age where faith was highly prized, her “Lost Faith” observes that “To lose one’s faith surpasses/The loss of an estate.”
The poems on “Love” cover the various forms of love. “Proof” speaks of the love of God proven on Calvary. “The Lovers” captures her observations of “rosey” cheeks of two young people and staggering speech as they notice each other. Meanwhile, “The Wife” reflects the gendered expectations of the day of dropping life’s “playthings” for the “honorable work/of woman and of wife. There are poems of longing and contentment, and those attesting the loyalty of a loving friend.
“Nature” reveals her keen attention to the world about her. She writes of summer showers, sunsets, bees and bobolinks, butterflies and purple clover. Dickenson captures the deception of “Indian Summer”: “These are the days when skies put on/The old, old sophistries of June–/A blue and gold mistake.” She notices bats, rats, spiders, and their webs.
Finally, “Time and Eternity” deals with ultimate issues of death and the life ever after. Dickinson writes extensively about death, yet rarely is this morbid or maudlin. Much is informed by her own faith, that in the opening words of the first poem in this section believes “This world is not conclusion…” She observes the signs of the death of someone across the street–of neighbors in and out, of ministers and milliners and mattresses thrown out. The poet describes observing “the dying eye” “In search of something.”
She speaks of the remembrances of the dead when alive, so real, yet irrevocably confined to the sepulchre. Dickinson faces death honestly. She recourses to her heavenly hope. And in her final poem, “Farewell,” she accepts her own death. It begins, “tie the strings to my life, my Lord,/Then I’m ready to go.” A few verses later, she concludes: “Good-by to the life I used to live,/And the world I used to know;/And kiss the hills for me, just once;/now I am ready to go!”
I think part of the fascination of Dickinson’s poetry is how deeply she sees into all that really matters in life, while rarely leaving her home. She pays attention to both her human and creaturely neighbors. The poet names both the movements of her heart and the contours of her faith. and often she does all this in just a few lines. I’ll leave you with this example, number “VIII” in the section on “Time and Eternity.”
Each that we lose takes part of us ;
A crescent still abides,
Which like the moon, some turbid night,
Is summoned by the tides.
Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a literary scholar, received four poems from a women in Amherst in 1862. He returned them but kept in touch with Emily Dickinson. She continued to correspond and write poetry but never published during her lifetime. After her death in 1886, Dickinson’s sister found a box containing hundreds of her poems and thought them worthy of publication. She sought out Mabel Loomis Todd, the wife of a local professor who sought the help of Higginson. He edited her work, dealing with issues of rhyme, metre, line arrangements, and dialect. The two published a first series in 1890 and a second in 1891. Mabel Loomis Todd published a third series on her own in 1896.
This collection is based on those works but is not exhaustive. It follows four categories from the original editions: Life, Love, Nature, and Time and Eternity. It includes prefaces from each of the three series and a facsimile of “Renunciation” in Dickinson’s script from the first series. And it also includes artwork from the original publications. However it does not give indications of which poems were included in each series.
I don’t feel adept enough in poetry to offer a critical review of someone of Dickinson’s stature. So I will highlight poems from each section I particularly noticed. Under “Life,” the poems are focused on Dickinson’s observations of life, which are broad despite her secluded existence. Poem VI could be a motto with its lines “If I can stop one heart from breaking,/I shall not live in vain;.” “Hope, 1” has the memorable image of “Hope is the thing with feathers.” Finally, in an age where faith was highly prized, her “Lost Faith” observes that “To lose one’s faith surpasses/The loss of an estate.”
The poems on “Love” cover the various forms of love. “Proof” speaks of the love of God proven on Calvary. “The Lovers” captures her observations of “rosey” cheeks of two young people and staggering speech as they notice each other. Meanwhile, “The Wife” reflects the gendered expectations of the day of dropping life’s “playthings” for the “honorable work/of woman and of wife. There are poems of longing and contentment, and those attesting the loyalty of a loving friend.
“Nature” reveals her keen attention to the world about her. She writes of summer showers, sunsets, bees and bobolinks, butterflies and purple clover. Dickenson captures the deception of “Indian Summer”: “These are the days when skies put on/The old, old sophistries of June–/A blue and gold mistake.” She notices bats, rats, spiders, and their webs.
Finally, “Time and Eternity” deals with ultimate issues of death and the life ever after. Dickinson writes extensively about death, yet rarely is this morbid or maudlin. Much is informed by her own faith, that in the opening words of the first poem in this section believes “This world is not conclusion…” She observes the signs of the death of someone across the street–of neighbors in and out, of ministers and milliners and mattresses thrown out. The poet describes observing “the dying eye” “In search of something.”
She speaks of the remembrances of the dead when alive, so real, yet irrevocably confined to the sepulchre. Dickinson faces death honestly. She recourses to her heavenly hope. And in her final poem, “Farewell,” she accepts her own death. It begins, “tie the strings to my life, my Lord,/Then I’m ready to go.” A few verses later, she concludes: “Good-by to the life I used to live,/And the world I used to know;/And kiss the hills for me, just once;/now I am ready to go!”
I think part of the fascination of Dickinson’s poetry is how deeply she sees into all that really matters in life, while rarely leaving her home. She pays attention to both her human and creaturely neighbors. The poet names both the movements of her heart and the contours of her faith. and often she does all this in just a few lines. I’ll leave you with this example, number “VIII” in the section on “Time and Eternity.”
Each that we lose takes part of us ;
A crescent still abides,
Which like the moon, some turbid night,
Is summoned by the tides.
January 15, 2023
I feel like reading Emily Dickinson was inevitable, given my newly developed affinity for poetry. It seemed like essential reading, especially since I have been trying to engage with notable female poets anyways. I didn’t know much about her initially, so of course I had to dive into some research for better understanding. And although I wasn’t invested in her first chunk of poems, the later sections grew to capture my attention. Some of my favorite verses came from “Reticence”, “The Test”, and “The Lovers.” Even though her verses don’t resonate with me as much as contemporary writers, I do get now why she is considered so illustrious.
*Other standout lines I liked:
GRIEFS
“I measure every grief I meet
With analytic eyes;
I wonder if it weighs like mine
Or has an easier size.”
And of course…
“I felt a funeral in my brain,
And mourners, to and fro,
Kept treading, treading, till it seemed
That sense was breaking through.”
*Other standout lines I liked:
GRIEFS
“I measure every grief I meet
With analytic eyes;
I wonder if it weighs like mine
Or has an easier size.”
And of course…
“I felt a funeral in my brain,
And mourners, to and fro,
Kept treading, treading, till it seemed
That sense was breaking through.”
June 10, 2020
My love of Emily Dickinson was shattered by this complete collection. I've always loved her poem, I'm nobody! Who are you? and Hope 1, but I never realized she was so fixated on the specter of death. Granted, she did not write her poems to be published and that only happened after her death, with editors Mabel Loomis and T.W. Higginson categorizing them and even punctuating them to create order. The collection does prove that the Belle of Amherst was supremely introspective.
January 10, 2023
Picture this, a small pond with a lily floating. It’s beauty making it impossible to divert your eyes. For the small pond and its short forming ripples are the people, and the slow drifting and alluring lily, is the literary artist Emily Dickinson. It’s not hard to understand why she’s loved by so many. One poem and you’re hooked. For in her words you find love, death and nature, but above all you find pieces of her.
August 30, 2025
Poems I liked:
Book I: Life
-p. 10 the secret
-p. 20 hope
-p. 22 the test
-p. 32 grief
-p.34 a book
-p. 41 the brain
-p. 47 the goal
-p. 69 I had a Guinea golden
Book III: Nature
-p. 109 intro poem
-p. 112 IV “The bee…”
-p. 121 the grass
-p. 146 to March
-p. 162 out of morning
Book IV: Time and Eternity
-p. 230 LXXXII “I felt a funeral in my brain…”
-p. 243 CXII the journey
-p. 255 CXL “Look back on time with kindly eyes…l
Book I: Life
-p. 10 the secret
-p. 20 hope
-p. 22 the test
-p. 32 grief
-p.34 a book
-p. 41 the brain
-p. 47 the goal
-p. 69 I had a Guinea golden
Book III: Nature
-p. 109 intro poem
-p. 112 IV “The bee…”
-p. 121 the grass
-p. 146 to March
-p. 162 out of morning
Book IV: Time and Eternity
-p. 230 LXXXII “I felt a funeral in my brain…”
-p. 243 CXII the journey
-p. 255 CXL “Look back on time with kindly eyes…l
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 4, 2023
I had known some of Emily Dickinson's poetry through my work with dulcisono women's choir; so I was pleased to find this collection and delve deeper. For a woman who rarely stepped through her front door, she had an amazing vocabulary, and a deep understanding of nature and human nature, which she was able to translate into succinct, sometimes startling verse, in a style ahead of her time.
November 14, 2023
"Who has not found the heaven below will fail of it above. God's residence is next to mine, His furniture is love."
Emily Dickinson's work both heals and destroys me—I absolutely adored every word.
5 ⭐️
Emily Dickinson's work both heals and destroys me—I absolutely adored every word.
5 ⭐️
June 21, 2020
3.5 Second time around.
September 3, 2020
By far the best poetry collection i've read so far, or at least the one that touched me the most. The woman was really ahead of her time.
November 27, 2021
Emily Dickinson is still one of my favorite poets! I was rereading this books and found more poems to love than before.
February 7, 2022
emily dickinson writes with vigour and conviction. she writes like she knows something you don't.
February 27, 2023
So many poems!! My favorite book was Nature.
Read
April 1, 2023Loved!
July 23, 2023
[Emily Dickinson, 1830-1886, picture: wikipedia.org.]
March 14, 2025
"...parting with a world/we have understood, for better/still it be unfurled."
Insightful poems on life, nature, love, time, and eternity to get in the pondering mood.
Insightful poems on life, nature, love, time, and eternity to get in the pondering mood.
June 10, 2025
I always found her poetry to be big and exciting, it's nice to have the collection.
June 10, 2020
I bought this book 30 years ago and, although I’ve read some of these poems so many times I have them memorized, this is the first time I read it from beginning to end—not in one sitting as some need time for reflection.
December 16, 2019
So much relatable poems about Life, Love, Nature, Time and Eternity.
June 12, 2022
I'd be lying if I said a significant chunk of poems didn't fly completely over my head, or bore me, or confuse me, but man when Emily Dickinson gets it right, she really nails it.
Except that she was famously a recluse (same, girl) and had a penchant for poems about death, I really didn't know anything about Dickinson before reading her anthology; to that end, the included introductions from the original publishings made for an excellent preface. A couple of lines sounded familiar here and there, but it was really like I was being introduced to her for the first time.
I didn't recognize ~*despair*~ in her poems like I was expecting - it felt less like she was obsessed with the macabre and more that she was questioning what a life comes to mean in its death and where we all go afterwards. Most perplexing (for me) were her poems on Nature, most enjoyable were her poems on Life, and most surprising was that she was funny! Recommend.
Except that she was famously a recluse (same, girl) and had a penchant for poems about death, I really didn't know anything about Dickinson before reading her anthology; to that end, the included introductions from the original publishings made for an excellent preface. A couple of lines sounded familiar here and there, but it was really like I was being introduced to her for the first time.
I didn't recognize ~*despair*~ in her poems like I was expecting - it felt less like she was obsessed with the macabre and more that she was questioning what a life comes to mean in its death and where we all go afterwards. Most perplexing (for me) were her poems on Nature, most enjoyable were her poems on Life, and most surprising was that she was funny! Recommend.
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews