Introduction

Selected Poems

[It’s all I have to bring today –]
[I never lost as much but twice –]
[I robbed the woods –]
- [alternative version]
[Success is counted sweetest]
- [alternative version]
[These are the days when Birds come back ˎ]
- [alternative versions]
[Safe in their Alabaster Chambers –]
- [alternative versions]
[Besides the Autumn poets sing]
[All overgrown by cunning moss,]
[I’m “wife” – I’ve finished that –]
[Title divine – is mine!]
[Faith is a fine invention]
- [alternative version]
[Some keep the Sabbath going to Church –]
[The Lamp burns sure – within –]
[I came to buy a smile – today –]
[I’m Nobody! Who are you?]
- [alternative version]
[Wild nights – Wild nights!]
- [alternative versions]
[Over the fence –]
[I taste a liquor never brewed –]
- [alternative version]
[There’s a certain Slant of light,]
- [alternative versions]
[“Hope” is the thing with feathers –]
[Your Riches – taught me – Poverty.]
[I found the words to every thought]
[I like a look of Agony,]
[I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,]
[It was not Death, for I stood up,]
[A Bird came down the Walk –]
[I know that He exists.]
[After great pain, a formal feeling comes –]
[This World is not conclusion.]
[I like to see it lap the Miles –]
- [alternative version]
[The Soul selects her own Society –]
[One need not be a Chamber – to be Haunted –]
[They shut me up in Prose –]
[This was a Poet –]
[I died for Beauty – but was scarce]
[The Malay – took the Pearl –]
[Because I could not stop for Death –]
- [alternative version]
[Our journey had advanced –]
[I dwell in Possibility –]
[He fumbles at your Soul]
[It feels a shame to be Alive –]
[This is my letter to the World]
[I’m sorry for the Dead – Today –]
[I heard a Fly buzz – when I died –]
[The Brain – is wider than the Sky –]
[There’s been a Death, in the Opposite House,]
[I measure every Grief I meet]
[Much Madness is divinest Sense –]
[I started Early – Took my Dog –]
[That I did always love]
[What Soft – Cherubic Creatures –]
[My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun –]
[“Nature” is what We see –]
[I could bring You Jewels – had I a mind to –]
[Publication – is the Auction]
[Truth – is as old as God –]
[I never saw a Moor –]
[Color – Caste – Denomination –]
[She rose to His Requirement – dropt]
[The Poets light but Lamps –]
[A Man may make a Remark –]
[Banish Air from Air –]
[As imperceptibly as Grief]
[The Heart has narrow Banks]
[Could I but ride indefinite]
[As the Starved Maelstrom laps the Navies]
[A narrow Fellow in the Grass]
- [alternative versions]
[The Bustle in a House]
[A Spider sewed at Night]
[Tell all the Truth but tell it slant –]
- [alternative version]
[To pile like Thunder to its close]
[Apparently with no surprise]
[A Word made Flesh is seldom]
[My life closed twice before its close;]
[To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,]
Fascicle 13
- [I know some lonely Houses off the Road]
- [I can wade Grief –]
- [You see I cannot see – your lifetime –]
- [“Hope” is the thing with feathers –]
- [To die – takes just a little while –]
- [If I’m lost – now –]
- [Delight is as the flight –]
- [She sweeps with many-colored Brooms –]
- [Of Bronze – and Blaze –]
- [There’s a certain Slant of light,]
- [Blazing in Gold – and]
- [Good Night! Which put the Candle out?]
- [Read – Sweet – how others – strove –]
- [Put up my lute!]
- [There came a Day – at Summer’s full –]
- [The lonesome for they know not What –]
- [How the old Mountains drip with Sunset]
- [Of Tribulation, these are They,]
- [If your Nerve, deny you –]

Selected Letters

To Abiah Root (29 January 1850)
To Jane Humphrey (3 April 1850)
To Abiah Root (7 and 17 May 1850)
To Susan Gilbert Dickinson (April 1852)
To Susan Gilbert Dickinson (27 June 1852)
To Samuel Bowles (February 1861)
To Unknown Recipient (c. 1861)
To Susan Gilbert Dickinson (1861)
Susan Dickinson to Emily Dickinson (1861)
To Susan Gilbert Dickinson (1861)
To Thomas Wentworth Higginson (15 April 1862)
To Thomas Wentworth Higginson (25 April 1862)
To Thomas Wentworth Higginson (7 June 1862)
To Thomas Wentworth Higginson (July 1862)
To Otis Phillips Lord (c. 1878)
To Susan Gilbert Dickinson (October 1883)

In Context

The Reception of Emily Dickinson in the Nineteenth Century
- from Alexander Young, “Boston Letter,” Critic (11 October 1890)
- from anonymous, “From the Book Store,” St. Joseph Daily News (22 November 1890)
- from anonymous, “New Books,” Boston Post (27 November 1890)
- from Kinsley Twining and William Hayes Ward, “Poems by Emily Dickinson,” Independent (11 December 1890)
- from William Dean Howells, “Editor’s Study,” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine (January 1891)
- from anonymous, Springfield Republican (23 January 1891)
- from Andrew Lang, “A Literary Causerie,” Speaker (31 January 1891)
- Laura Coombs Hills, Retouched image of Emily Dickinson (late nineteenth century)
Thomas Wentworth Higginson, “Emily Dickinson’s Letters,” The Atlantic Monthly (October 1891)

Acknowledgments

Index

Reviews

Comments on The Broadview Anthology of American Literature “The expansion, diversification, and revitalization of the texts and terms of American literary history in recent years is made marvelously accessible in the … new Broadview Anthology of American Literature.” — Hester Blum, Penn State University “The Broadview Anthology of American Literature is, quite simply, a breakthrough. … Meticulously researched and expertly assembled, this anthology should be the new gold standard for scholars and teachers alike.” — Michael D’Alessandro, Duke University “So much thought has been put into every aspect of the Broadview Anthology of American Literature, from the selection of texts to their organization to their presentation on the page; it will be a gift to classrooms for years to come.” — Lara Langer Cohen, Swarthmore College “The multiplicity of early American locations, languages, and genres is here on wondrous display.” — Jordan Alexander Stein, Fordham University “Above all, this is a volume for the 21st century. … Its capaciousness and ample resource materials make for a text that is always evolving and meeting its readers in new ways.” — Russ Castronovo, University of Wisconsin-Madison “a rich collection that reflects the diversity of American literatures…. [and] that never forgets its most important audience: students. There is a wealth of material here that will help them imagine and reimagine what American literature could be.” — Michael C. Cohen, UCLA “The Broadview Anthology of American Literature is an instructor’s dream for introducing students to the diversity and complexity of American literature.” — Venetria K. Patton, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign “I am eager to teach with this anthology! It aligns with cutting-edge research through its selections, its introductions, and explanatory notes, and the texts are supplemented with primary documents that encourage teachers and students to think critically and dynamically.” — Koritha Mitchell, The Ohio State University

Table of Contents

Reviews