The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience.

Love is like the wild rose-briar;Friendship like the holly-tree.The holly is dark when the rose-briar blooms,But which will bloom most constantly?The wild rose-briar is sweet in spring,Its summer blossoms scent the air;Yet wait till winter...

I know nothing in the world that has as much power as a word. Sometimes I write one, and I look at it, until it begins to shine.

If you were coming in the Fall, I’d brush the Summer by With half a smile and half a spurn, As Housewives do a Fly. If I could see you in a year, I’d wind...

We do not play on Graves—Because there isn’t Room—Besides—it isn’t even—it slantsAnd People come—And put a Flower on it—And hang their faces so—We’re fearing that their Hearts will drop—And crush our pretty play—And so we...

Success is counted sweetest by those ne’er succeed.

The possible’s slow fuse is lit by the Imagination.

A letter always seemed to me like immortality because it is the mind alone without corporeal friend.

If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain.

A wounded dear leaps the highest

We never know how high we areTill we are called to rise;And then, if we are true to plan,Our statures touch the skies.The heroism we reciteWould be a daily thing,Did not ourselves the cubits warpFor...

Il sempre è fatto di attimi.

We never know how high we are till we are called to rise. Then if we are true to form our statures touch the skies.

A precious, mouldering pleasure ’t is To meet an antique book, In just the dress his century wore; A privilege, I think.

The Soul selects her own Society.

I dwell in possibility…

There is a pain – so utter – It swallows substance up – Then covers the Abyss with Trance – So Memory can step Around – across – opon it – As one within a...

The worm doth woo the mortal, death claims a living bride, Night unto day is married, morn unto eventide, Earth a merry damsel, and heaven a knight so true,And Earth is quite coquettish, and beseemeth...

your brain is wider than the sky

Or help one fainting RobinUnto his Nest againI shall not live in vain.

Morning without you is a dwindled dawn.

He ate and drank the precious words,His spirit grew robust;He knew no more that he was poor,Nor that his frame was dust.He danced along the dingy days,And this bequest of wingsWas but a book. What...

While I was fearing it, it came,But came with less of fear,Because that fearing it so longHad almost made it dear.There is a fitting a dismay,A fitting a despair.’T is harder knowing it is due,Than...

Hope is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul…

Tell all the Truth but tell it slant–Success in Circuit liesToo bright for our infirm DelightThe Truth’s superb surpriseAs Lightning to the Children easedWith explanation kindThe Truth must dazzle graduallyOr every man be blind–

She dealt her pretty words like Blades –How glittering they shone –And every One unbared a NerveOr wantoned with a Bone –She never deemed — she hurt –That — is not Steel’s Affair –A vulgar...

THE soul should always stand ajar, That if the heaven inquire,He will not be obliged to wait, Or shy of troubling her.Depart, before the host has slid The bolt upon the door,To seek for the...

Harm is one of those things that I always mean to keep clear of, but somehow my intentions and me don’t chime as they ought, and people will get hit with stones that I throw...

A great hope fellYou heard no noiseThe ruin was within.

I have no life but this, To lead it here; Nor any death, but lest Dispelled from there; Nor tie to earths to come, Nor action new, Except through this extent, The realm of you.

We dream — it is good we are dreaming —It would hurt us — were we awake —But since it is playing — kill us,And we are playing — shriek —What harm? Men die —...

To be alive──is Power.

Till I loved I never lived.

There’s a certain slant of light,On winter afternoons,That oppresses, like the weightOf cathedral tunes.

Bless God, he went as soldiers,His musket on his breast—Grant God, he charge the bravestOf all the martial blest!Please God, might I behold himIn epauletted white—I should not fear the foe then—I should not fear...

I like the look of agony, because I know it’s true

Tell all the Truth, but tell it slant/Success in Circuit lies…

The Soul selects her own Society—Then—shuts the Door—To her divine Majority—Present no more—Unmoved—she notes the Chariots—pausing—At her low Gate—Unmoved—an Emperor be kneelingUpon her Mat—I’ve known her—from an ample nation—Choose One—Then—close the Valves of her attention—Like...

That Love is all there isIs all we know of Love,It is enough, the freight should beProportioned to the groove.

But it is growing damp and I must go in. Memory’s fog is rising.

Hope is the thing with feathersThat perches in the soul,And sings the tune without the words,And never stops at all,And sweetest in the gale is heard;And sore must be the stormThat could abash the little...

Tell the truth, but tell it slant.

Look back on Time, with kindly eyes -He doubtless did his best -How softly sinks that trembling sunIn Human Nature’s West –

The career of flowers differs from ours only in inaudibleness. I feel more reverence as I grow for these mute creatures whose suspense or transport may surpass my own.

The Heart wants what it wants – or else it does not care

I felt a Cleaving in my Mind—As if my Brain had split—I tried to match it—Seam by Seam—But could not make it fit.

Nature is a haunted house–but Art–is a house that tries to be haunted.

I sing to use the waiting, My bonnet but to tie, And shut the door unto my house; No more to do have I, Till, his best step approaching, We journey to the day, And...

A charm invests a faceImperfectly beheld,—The lady dare not lift her veilFor fear it be dispelled.But peers beyond her mesh,And wishes, and denies,—Lest interview annul a wantThat image satisfies.

Mine Enemy is growing old –I have at last Revenge –The Palate of the Hate departs –If any would avenge Let him be quick — the Viand flits –It is a faded Meat –Anger as...