Read this when
The Poems of Emily Dickinson
When you can't cry and you're just... going through the motions. Emily Dickinson named that in the 1860s.
Who it's for
Dickinson describes inner states with unusual precision, so a reader who has been saying 'I don't know what I feel' can find an exact mirror in a few lines, which is a form of affect labelling.
Feelings it meets
What it is
This collection gathers the poems of Emily Dickinson, who wrote nearly 1,800 poems but saw only about ten published in her lifetime; her work appeared mainly after her death in 1886, beginning with an 1890 volume. R. W. Franklin's single-volume Reading Edition (Harvard University Press, 1999) presents 1,789 poems, usually in their latest version, with Dickinson's own spelling, punctuation and capitalization.
Where to find it
Poems from the 1890s editions are public domain in the US and free on Project Gutenberg (Poems, Series One to Three) and LibriVox. Franklin's reading edition (Harvard/Belknap) and many selections are.
Before you start
Heads up: Frequent focus on death and despair.
Age: Ages 12+
Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing.Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet, “On Death”
