‘My River runs to thee’ is a short poem, even by Dickinson’s brief, telegrammatic standards, but as with so many of Dickinson’s poems, it carries an arresting opening line, and reminds us that the river and the sea are endlessly linked in one great cycle. My River runs to thee […]
‘How happy is the little Stone’ is a delightful and delighted lyric about the simple features of the natural world, written by the prolific poet Emily Dickinson (1830-86). This poem is more upbeat than some of Dickinson’s more famous poems, which take on themes such as death and depression, so […]
‘On a Columnar Self’ by Emily Dickinson does something which Emily Dickinson frequently does so well: it takes an abstract idea (the concept of the self) and renders it concrete and vivid, through a well-chosen metaphor. On a Columnar Self— How ample to rely In Tumult—or Extremity— How good the […]
‘For each ecstatic instant’ is a short lyric by Emily Dickinson about the relationship between pleasure and pain, joy and suffering. The Earl of Rochester, in the seventeenth century, had asked, ‘All this to love and rapture’s due; / Must we not pay a debt to pleasure too?’ In ‘For […]
‘Safe in their Alabaster Chambers’ is about one of Emily Dickinson’s favourite themes: death. But, as so often with an Emily Dickinson poem, her treatment of this perennial theme is far from straightforward. Safe in their Alabaster Chambers – Untouched by Morning – And untouched by noon – Sleep the […]