Emily Dickinson – Another Massachusetts writer

Once again, as a girl growing up in Massachusetts, I learned the name Emily Dickinson at a young age.  My mother actually bought me a beautiful children’s book about her since I showed such an interest in writing and poetry.  I was instantly fascinated by this seemingly reclusive redhead from Amherst.  Throughout the years, I picked up various collections of her poetry until, finally, I picked up The Complete Poems collection, ensuring that I would never run out of new poems to explore.

If you’re ever out in the Amherst area, definitely visit The Emily Dickinson Museum – the Homestead and the Evergreens – you will learn a great deal about her and most of it will probably surprise you (well, if you’re not a scholar who has extensively studied the life and work of Emily Dickinson).  And, if you don’t get any new information out of the tour, it’s just a really, really beautiful homestead and part of Amherst history.

The daisy follows soft the sun

The daisy follows soft the sun,

And when his golden walk is done,

Sits shyly at his feet.

He, waking, finds the flower near.

“Wherefore, marauder, art thou here?”

“Because, sir, love is sweet!”

 

We are the flower, Thou the sun!

Forgive us, if as days decline,

We nearer steal to Thee,–

Enamoured of the parting west,

The peace, the flight, the amethyst,

Night’s possibility!

If I can stop one heart from breaking

If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.

For each ecstatic instant

For each ecstatic instant
We must an anguish pay
In keen and quivering ratio
To the ecstasy.

For each beloved hour
Sharp pittances of years,
Bitter contested farthings
And coffers heaped with tears.

I’m nobody! Who are you?

I’m nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there’s a pair of us – don’t tell!
They’d advertise – you know!

How dreary to be somebody!
How public like a frog
To tell one’s name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!

Take Emily home with you! From the Unemployed Philosophers Guild

The Emily Dickinson Little Thinkers doll is made by The Unemployed Philosophers Guild – they make lots of neat-o things.