Emily Dickinson – Page 2 – Interesting Literature

16 of the Best Emily Dickinson Quotations

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Many of the most quoted, and quotable, lines in Emily Dickinson’s poetry are her opening lines. Perhaps no other poet has produced so many memorable first lines to poems in all of their oeuvre.

And it’s worth remembering that Dickinson (1830-86), an American poet who lived much of her life as a virtual hermit in Amherst, Massachusetts, published hardly any poems during her lifetime. Most were published posthumously; she was better-known for her gardening than her writing while she was alive.

A Short Analysis of Emily Dickinson’s ‘Success Is Counted Sweetest’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘Success Is Counted Sweetest’ is not as famous as some of Emily Dickinson’s other poems, but she was a prolific poet, and this one is well worth reading. Indeed, it has a peculiar place in Dickinson’s oeuvre, being one of just seven poems which were published during her lifetime. (It’s not quite true that Dickinson was entirely unknown as a poet while she was alive, although it’s certainly true that she was better known as a gardener than as a poet during her own lifetime.)

As is often the case with an Emily Dickinson poem, the language and imagery require a bit of careful analysis and unpicking.

A Short Analysis of Emily Dickinson’s ‘A Thunderstorm’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

This is the second version of a poem which Dickinson wrote in two different drafts in 1864. This version opens, ‘The wind begun to rock the Grass’, and describes the chaos that a storm wreaks upon the world. Worth reading for the following two lines alone: ‘The Dust did scoop itself like Hands / And threw away the Road.’

A Short Analysis of Emily Dickinson’s ‘You cannot put a Fire out’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘You cannot put a Fire out’ is a short poem by Emily Dickinson, who wrote many short poems. Like many of her poems, it’s baffling – bordering on the cryptic – so a few words of analysis are necessary to (try to) penetrate the poem’s meaning.

A Short Analysis of Emily Dickinson’s ‘Death is potential to that Man’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘Death is potential to that Man’ is one of many poems Emily Dickinson wrote about death – or Death, for the Grim Reaper lurks behind Dickinson’s trademark capitalisations. Here is ‘Death is potential to that Man’ along with some words of analysis.