I meant to have but modest needs

Poetry

Selected Poems of Emily Dickinson

by Emily DICKINSON (1830 - 1886)

Emily Dickinson has come to be regarded as one of the quintessential poets of 19th century America. A very private poet with a very quiet and reclusive life, her poetry was published posthumously and immediately found a wide audience. While she echoed the romantic natural themes of her times, her style was much more free and irregular, causing many to criticize her and editors to "correct" her. In the early 20th century, when poetic style had become much looser, new audiences learned to appreciate her work. Here collected are many of her most contemplative, most rebellious, and "dark" works, expressing her frustrations with the behavioral confines of her times, and the confines of being human and unknowing of eternity. (Summary by Becky Miller)

Listen next episodes of Selected Poems of Emily Dickinson:
Brain is wider than the sky, The , Each life converges to some centre , I felt a cleavage in my mind , I had no time to hate , I should have been too glad , If recollecting were forgetting , Is Heaven a physician? , My life closed twice before its close , Poor torn heart, a tattered heart, A , Softened by Time’s consummate plush , Thought went up my mind to-day, A