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“The Soul Selects her Own Society” by Emily Dickinson (1862)
A poem often paired with 683, this poem explores the concept of the imperial, empowered soul. Here the soul endures no treason but rather acts to defend its complex integrity by seeking shelter against and away from the real-time world, content to select one or two others to admit.
“Think of the Soul” by Walt Whitman (1871)
One of the set pieces from Whitman’s Leaves of Grass (which Dickinson knew well), Whitman expounds on the concept of the importance and viability of the soul. He testifies to its reality and suggests, in ways Dickinson agreed, that despite the oppressive reality of the material universe and the dicey concept of a Christian afterlife, the body maintains a soul that is at once imperial and vulnerable.
“Holy Sonnet VII” by John Donne (1633)
Dickinson has often been called America’s Metaphysical Poet. She read widely of the works of these English Renaissance poets, among them Donne, admiring as much their theological speculations as their innovative experiments in prosody. Here, Donne, a bishop in the Anglican Church, speculates on the Christian soul and its inevitable showdown with the bookkeeper God.
By Emily Dickinson
A Bird, came down the Walk
Emily Dickinson
A Clock stopped—
Emily Dickinson
A narrow Fellow in the Grass (1096)
Emily Dickinson
Because I Could Not Stop for Death
Emily Dickinson
"Faith" is a fine invention
Emily Dickinson
Fame Is a Fickle Food (1702)
Emily Dickinson
Hope is a strange invention
Emily Dickinson
"Hope" Is the Thing with Feathers
Emily Dickinson
I Can Wade Grief
Emily Dickinson
I Felt a Cleaving in my Mind
Emily Dickinson
I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain
Emily Dickinson
If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking
Emily Dickinson
If I should die
Emily Dickinson
If you were coming in the fall
Emily Dickinson
I heard a Fly buzz — when I died
Emily Dickinson
I'm Nobody! Who Are You?
Emily Dickinson
Much Madness is divinest Sense—
Emily Dickinson
Success Is Counted Sweetest
Emily Dickinson
Tell all the truth but tell it slant
Emily Dickinson
The Only News I Know
Emily Dickinson