The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

Choose One—
Then—close the Valves of her attention—
Like Stone.
‘The Soul selects her own Society’ (c.1862)
Success is counted sweetest
By those who ne’er succeed.
To comprehend a nectar
Requires sorest need.
‘Success is counted sweetest’ (1859)
There’s a certain Slant of light,
Winter Afternoons—
That oppresses like the Heft
Of Cathedral Tunes—
Heavenly Hurt, it gives us—
We can find no scar,
But internal difference,
Where the Meanings, are.
‘There’s a certain Slant of light’ (c.1861)
This quiet Dust was Gentlemen and Ladies
And Lads and Girls—
Was laughter and ability and Sighing
And Frocks and Curls.
‘This quiet Dust was Gentlemen and Ladies’ (c.1864)
What Soft—Cherubic Creatures—
These Gentlewomen are—
One would as soon assault a Plush—
Or violate a Star—
Such Dimity Convictions—
A Horror so refined
Of freckled Human Nature—
Of Deity—ashamed.
‘What Soft—Cherubic Creatures’ (c.1862)
Friday I tasted life. It was a vast morsel. A Circus passed the house—still I feel the red in my
mind though the drums are out. The Lawn is full of south and the odors tangle, and I hear to-day
for the first time the river in the tree.
Letter to Mrs J. G. Holland, 1866, in R. N. Linscott (ed.) ‘Selected Letters and Poems of Emily
Dickinson’ (1959)
This is my letter to the world,
That never wrote to me,—
The simple news that Nature told,