The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson/Index

by Emily Dickinson

Table of contents

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

INDEX OF FIRST LINES

A bird came down the walk:

91

A cap of lead across the sky

277

A charm invests a face

163

A clock stopped—not the mantel's;

249

A death-blow is a life-blow to some

204

A deed knocks first at thought,

37

A dew sufficed itself

135

Adrift! a little boat adrift!

246

A drop fell on the apple tree,

113

Adventure most unto itself

257

A face devoid of love or grace,

54

Afraid? Of whom am I afraid?

193

After a hundred years

225

Ah, Teneriffe! Retreating Mountain!

269

A lady red upon the hill

128

A light exists in spring

127

A little madness in the Spring

270

A little overflowing word

311

A little over Jordan,

300

A little road not made of man,

113

All circumstances are the frame

314

All I may, if small,

304

All overgrown by cunning moss,

250

A long, long sleep, a famous sleep

251

Alter? When the hills do.

145

Ambition cannot find him,

301

A modest lot, a fame petite,

70

Ample make this bed

214

A murmur in the trees to note,

130

An altered look about the hills;

80

A narrow fellow in the grass

91

An awful tempest mashed the air,

90

An everywhere of silver,

90

Angels in the early morning

119

A poor torn heart, a tattered heart,

28

Apparently with no surprise

122

A precious, mouldering pleasure 'tis

7

A prompt, executive Bird is the Jay,

282

Arcturus is his other name,—

89

Are friends delight or pain?

60

A route of evanescence

86

As by the dead we love to sit,

207

As children bid the guest good-night,

118

A sepal, petal, and a thorn

132

As far from pity as complaint,

232

A shady friend for torrid days

34

Ashes denote that fire was;

60

A sickness of this world it most occasions

239

As if some little Arctic flower,

149

As imperceptibly as grief

103

A sloop of amber slips away

140

A solemn thing it was, I said,

176

A something in a summer's day,

114

A spider sewed at night

94

At half-past three a single bird

76

A thought went up my mind to-day

27

A throe upon the features

223

At last to be identified!

196

At least to pray is left, is left

203

A toad can die of light!

250

A train went through a burial gate,

185

A triumph may be of several kinds

210

A word is dead

49

A wounded deer leaps highest,

6

B

Beauty crowds me till I die,

272

Because I could not stop for Death,

194

Before I got my eye put out,

35

Before the ice is in the pools,

245

Before you thought of spring,

80

Belshazzar had a letter,—

16

Bereaved of all, I went abroad,

237

Besides the Autumn poets sing,

105

Blazing in gold and quenching in purple,

102

Bless God, he went as soldiers,

234

Bloom upon the Mountains, stated,

274

Bring me the sunset in a cup,

100

C

Candor, my tepid Friend,

302

Come slowly, Eden!

156

Could I but ride indefinite,

136

Could mortal lip divine

52

Crisis is sweet and, set of Heart

307

D

Dare you see a soul at the white heat?

20

Dear March, come in!

129

Death is a dialogue between

196

Death is like the insect

230

Death sets a thing significant

208

Delayed till she had ceased to know

181

Delight becomes pictorial

26

Departed to the judgment

182

Did the harebell loose her girdle

162

Distance is not the realm of Fox

306

Doubt me, my dim companion!

146

Down Time's quaint stream

266

Drab habitation of whom?

139

Dropped into the Ether Acre!

286

Drowning is not so pitiful

50

Dust is the only secret

300

E

Each life converges to some centre

34

Each that we lose takes part of us

231

Eden is that old-fashioned House

301

Elijah's wagon knew no thill

295

Elysium is as far as to

146

Essential oils are wrung

215

Except the heaven had come so near

33

Except the smaller size, no Lives are round

257

Except to heaven, she is nought

196

Exhilaration is the Breeze

260

Experiment to me

32

Exultation is the going

184

F

Faith is a fine invention

32

Fame is a fickle food

257

Far from love the Heavenly Father

251

Farther in summer than the birds

102

Fate slew him, but he did not drop

60

Father, I bring thee not myself

172

Few get enough,—enough is one

56

Finite to fail, but infinite to venture

61

Follow wise Orion

283

Forbidden fruit a flavor has

49

For Death,—or rather

285

For each ecstatic instant

22

Forever cherished be the tree

281

Frequently the woods are pink

98

From all the jails the boys and girls

56

From cocoon forth a butterfly

79

From us she wandered now a year

236

G

Give little anguish

313

Given in marriage unto thee

228

Glee! the great storm is over!

5

Glory is the bright tragic thing

263

Glowing is her Bonnet

280

God gave a loaf to every bird

31

God made a little gentian

105

God permits industrious angels

189

Going to heaven!

202

Going to him! Happy letter! Tell him

259

Good night! which put the candle out?

37

Great streets of silence led away

223

H

Had this one day not been

310

Have you got a brook in your little heart

149

Heart not so heavy as mine

40

Heart, we will forget him!

172

He ate and drank the precious words

14

Heaven is what I cannot reach!

49

|"Heavenly Father," take to thee

298

He fumbles at your spirit

171

He preached upon "breadth" till it argued him narrow

36

He put the belt around my life

165

Her final summer was it

217

Her Grace is all she has

309

Her "Last Poems"

292

He touched me, so I live to know

174

High from the earth I heard a bird

132

His bill an auger is

135

His Cheek is his Biographer

298

His mind, of man a secret makes

264

Hope is a subtle glutton

48

Hope is the thing with feathers

19

How dare the robins sing

230

How destitute is he

306

How happy is the little stone

97

How many times these low feet staggered

186

How still the bells in steeples stand

51

How the old mountains drip with sunset

141

I

I bet with every Wind that blew, till Nature in chagrin

1

I breathed enough to learn the trick

1

I bring an unaccustomed wine

1

I cannot live with you

1

I can't tell you, but you feel it

1

I can wade grief

1

I did not reach thee

1

I died for beauty, but was scarce

1

I dreaded that first robin so

1

I envy seas whereon he rides

1

If anybody's friend be dead

1

I felt a cleavage in my mind

1

I felt a funeral in my brain

1

If I can stop one heart from breaking

1

If I could tell how glad I was

1

If I may have it when it 's dead

1

If I should die

1

If I should n't be alive

1

I fit for them

1

I found the phrase to every thought

1

If pain for peace prepares

1

If recollecting were forgetting

1

If the foolish call them "flowers"

1

If tolling bell I ask the cause

1

If what we could were what we would

1

If you were coming in the fall

1

I gained it so

1

I gave myself to him

1

I had a daily bliss

1

I had a guinea golden

1

I had been hungry all the years

1

I had no cause to be awake

1

I had no time to hate, because

1

I have a king who does not speak

1

I have no life but this

1

I have not told my garden yet

1

I heard a fly buzz when I died

1

I held a jewel in my fingers

1

I hide myself within my flower

1

I know a place where summer strives

1

I know some lonely houses off the road

1

I know that he exists

1

I like a look of agony

1

I like to see it lap the miles

1

I lived on dread; to those who know

1

I live with him, I see his face

1

I 'll tell you how the sun rose

1

I lost a world the other day

1

I many times thought peace had come

1

I 'm ceded, I 've stopped being theirs

1

I meant to find her when I came

1

I meant to have but modest needs,

1

I measure every grief I meet

1

Immortal is an ample word

1

Immured in Heaven! What a Cell!

1

I'm nobody! Who are you?

1

I'm thinking of that other morn,

1

I'm wife; I've finished that,

1

I never heard the word " escape "

1

I never lost as much but twice,

1

I never saw a moor,

1

I never told the buried gold

1

In lands I never saw, they say,

1

I noticed people disappeared,

1

In winter, in my room,

1

I read my sentence steadily,

1

I reason, earth is short,

1

Is bliss, then, such abyss

1

I see thee better in the dark,

1

I send two Sunsets —

1

I shall know why, when time is over,

1

Is Heaven a physician?

1

I should have been too glad, I see,

1

I should not dare to leave my friend,

1

I showed her heights she never saw —

1

I sing to use the waiting,

1

I started early, took my dog,

1

I stepped from plank to plank

1

I taste a liquor never brewed,

1

It can't be summer,—that got through;

1

It dropped so low in my regard

1

I think just how my shape will rise

1

I think that the root of the Wind is Water,

1

I think the hemlock likes to stand

1

It makes no difference abroad,

1

It might be easier

1

I took my power in my hand

1

It's all I have to bring to-day

1

It sifts from leaden sieves,

1

It's like the light, —

1

It sounded as if the streets were running,

1

It's such a little thing to weep,

1

It struck me every day

1

It tossed and tossed, —

30

It was not death, for I stood up,

221

It was too late for man,

197

I’ve got an arrow here;

171

I’ve seen a dying eye

188

I watched her face to see which way

288

I went to heaven, —

208

I went to thank her,

187

I wish I knew that woman’s name,

237

I wonder if the sepulchre

244

I worked for chaff and earning wheat

65

I years had been from home,

44

Just lost when I was saved!

47

Just so, Jesus raps — He does not weary—

312

Lay this laurel on the one

225

Let down the bars, O Death!

201

Let me not mar that perfect dream

174

Life, and Death, and Giants

65

Lightly stepped a yellow star

279

Like brooms of steel

283

Like Men and Women shadows walk

272

Like mighty footlights burned the red

101

Like some old-fashioned miracle

279

Like trains of cars on tracks of plush

116

Look back on time with kindly eyes,

185

Love is anterior to life,

167

Love reckons by itself alone,

305

Low at my problem bending,

289

March is the month of expectation,

275

Me! Come! My dazzled face

236

Mine by the right of the white election!

145

Mine enemy is growing old,—

38

Morning is the place for dew,

131

“Morning” means “Milking” to the Farmer

270

Morns like these we parted;

203

Much madness is divinest sense

9

Musicians wrestle everywhere:

46

My cocoon tightens, colors tease,

184

My country need not change her gown,

32

My friend mast be a bird,

173

My life closed twice before its close;

1

My nosegays are for captives;

1

My river runs to thee:

1

My Wheel is in the dark,—

1

My worthiness is all my doubt,

1

Nature is what we see,

1

Nature rarer uses yellow

1

Nature, the gentlest mother,

1

New feet within my garden go,

1

No Autumn’s intercepting chill

1

No brigadier throughout the year

1

No matter where the Saints abide,

1

No other can reduce

1

No rack can torture me,

1

No romance sold unto,

1

Not any higher stands the grave

1

Not any sunny tone

1

Not in this world to see his face

1

Not knowing when the dawn will come

1

Not one by Heaven defrauded stay,

1

Not when we know

1

Not with a club the heart is broken,

1

Of all the souls that stand create

1

Of all the sounds despatched abroad,

1

Of bronze and blaze

1

Of Death the sharpest function,

1

Of so divine a loss

1

Of this is Day composed—

1

Of tribulation these are they

1

One blessing had I, than the rest

1

One day is there of the series

1

One dignity delays for all,

1

One need not be a chamber to be haunted, —

1

One of the ones that Midas touched,

1

One sister have I in our house,

1

On my volcano grows the grass, —

1

On such a night, or such a night,

1

On the bleakness of my lot

1

On this long storm the rainbow rose,

1

On this wondrous sea,

1

Our journey had advanced;

1

Our lives are Swiss,—

1

Our share of night to bear,

1

Pain has an element of blank;

1

Papa above! Regard a Mouse

1

Perception of an Object costs

1

Perhaps you’d like to buy a flower?

1

Peril as a possession

1

Pigmy seraphs gone astray,

1

Pink, small, and punctual.I

1

Pompless no life can pass away;

1

Poor little heart!

1

Portraits are to daily faces

1

Prayer is the little implement

1

Presentment is that long shadow on the lawn

1

Proud of my broken heart since thou didst break it,

1

Read, sweet, how others strove,

1

“ Remember me,” implored the Thief —

1

Remembrance has a rear and front, —

1

Remorse is memory awake,

1

Reverse cannot befall the fine Prosperity

1

Safe Despair it is that raves,

1

Safe in their alabaster chambers,

1

She died at play,

1

She died, — this was the way she died;

1

She laid her docile crescent down,

1

She rose to his requirement, dropped

1

She slept beneath a tree

1

She sweeps with many-colored brooms,

1

She went as quiet as the dew

1

Sleep is supposed to be,

1

So bashful when I spied her,

1

So, from the mould

1

Softened by Time’s consummate plush,

1

So gay a flower bereaved the mind

1

Some Days retired from the rest

1

Some keep the Sabbath going to church;.no

1

Some rainbow coming from the fair!.in

1

Some things that fly there be,—

1

Some, too fragile for winter winds,

1

So proud she was to die

1

So set its sun in thee,

1

Soul, wilt thou toss again?

1

South winds jostle them

1

“ Sown in dishonor ? ”

1

The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson/

1

Speech is a symptom of affection,

1

Split the lark and you ’ll find the music,

1

Step lightly on this narrow spotl

1

Success is counted sweetest

1

Summer begins to have the look,

1

Summer for thee grant I may be

1

Superfluous were the sun

1

Superiority to fate

1

Surgeons must be very careful

1

Sweet hours have perished here;

1

Sweet is the swamp with its secret,

1

Taken from men this morning,

1

Talk with prudence to a beggar

1

That I did always love,

1

That is solemn we have ended, —

1

That Love is all there is,

1

That she forgot me was the least,

1

That short, potential stir

1

That such have died enables us

1

The bat is dun with wrinkled wings

1

The bee is not afraid of me,.in

1

The Bible is an antique volume

1

The blunder is to estimate,—

1

The body grows outside, —

1

The bone that has no marrow;

1

The brain is wider than the sky,

1

The brain within its groove

1

The bustle in a house

1

The butterfly obtains

1

The butterfly’s assumption-gown,

1

The clouds their backs together laid,

1

The cricket sang,

1

The daisy follows soft the sun,

1

The day came slow, till five o’clock,

1

The Devil, had he fidelity,

1

The difference between despair

1

The distance that the dead have gone

1

The Duties of the Wind are few

1

The dying need but little, dear,—

1

The Face we choose to miss,

1

The farthest thunder that I heard

1

The feet of people walking home

1

The Future never spoke,

1

The gentian weaves her fringes,

1

The gleam of an heroic act,

1

54

The grass so little has to do, —

1

The grave my little cottage is,

1

The healed Heart shows its shallow scar

1

The heart asks pleasure first,

1

The Hills erect their purple heads,

1

The incidents of Love

1

The inundation of the Spring

1

Their height in heaven comforts not,

1

The largest fire ever known

1

The last night that she lived,

1

The leaves, like women, interchange

1

The long sigh of the Frog

1

The Look of Thee, what is it like?

1

The luxury to apprehend

1

The missing All prevented me

1

The moon is distant from the sea,

1

The Moon upon her fluent route

1

The moon was but a chin of gold

1

The morns are meeker than they were,

1

The mountain sat upon the plain

1

The murmuring of bees has ceased;

1

The murmur of a bee

1

The mushroom is the elf of plants,

1

The nearest dream recedes, unrealized

1

The night was wide, and furnished scant

1

The Ones that disappeared are back,

1

The one that could repeat the summer day

1

The only ghost I ever saw

1

The overtakelessness of those

1

The past is such a curious creature,

1

The pedigree of honey

1

The props assist the house

1

The rat is the concisest tenant

1

There came a day at summer’s full

1

There came a wind like a bugle;

1

There is a flower that bees prefer,

1

There is another Loneliness

1

There is a shame of nobleness

1

There is a solitude of space,

1

There is a word

1

There is no frigate like a book

1

There’s a certain slant of light,

1

There’s been a death in the opposite house

1

There’s something quieter than sleep

1

The reticent volcano keeps

1

The right to perish might be thought

1

The robin is the one

1

The rose did caper on her cheek,

1

These are the days that Reindeer love

1

These are the days when birds come back,

1

The Sea said “ Come ” to the Brook,

1

The show is not the show,

1

The skies can’t keep their secret!

1

The sky is low, the clouds are mean,

1

The soul selects her own society,

1

The soul should always stand ajar,

1

The Soul’s superior instants

1

The Soul that has a Guest,

1

The Soul unto itself

1

The spider as an artist

1

The springtime’s pallid landscape

1

The Stars are old, that stood for me—

1

The stimulus, beyond the grave

1

The suburbs of a secret

1

The sun just touched the morning;

1

The sun kept setting, setting still;

1

The sweets of Pillage can be known

1

The thought beneath so slight a film

1

The treason of an accent

1

The way I read a letter’s this:

1

The wind began to rock the grass

1

The Winds drew off

1

The wind tapped like a tired man,

1

They dropped like flakes, they dropped like stars,

1

They say that “ time assuages,” —

1

They won’t frown always, — some sweet day

1

This is my letter to the world,

1

This is the land the sunset washes,

1

This merit hath the worst,—

1

This quiet Dust was Gentlemen and Ladies,

1

This was in the white of the year,

1

This world is not conclusion;

1

Those final Creatures, — who they are —

1

Though I get home how late, how late!

1

Three weeks passed since I had seen her, —

1

Through lane it lay, through bramble,

1

Through the straight pass of suffering

1

Tie the strings to my life, my Lord,

1

’T is an honorable thought,

1

’T is little I could care for pearls

1

’T is so much joy! ’T is so much joy!

1

’T is sunrise, little maid, hast thou

1

’T is whiter than an Indian pipe,

1

Title divine is mine

1

To be alive is power,

1

To-day or this noon

1

To fight aloud is very brave,

1

To hang our head ostensibly,

1

To hear an oriole sing

1

To help our bleaker parts

1

To know just how he suffered would be dear;

1

To learn the transport by the pain,

1

To lose one’s faith surpasses

1

To lose thee, sweeter than to gain

1

To love thee, year by year,

1

To make a prairie it takes a clover

1

To my quick ear the leaves conferred;

1

Too cold is this

1

To pile the Thunder to its close,

1

To see her is a picture,

1

To tell the beauty would decrease,

1

To the staunch Dust we safe commit thee;

1

To this apartment deep

1

To venerate the simple days

1

’T was a long parting, but the time

1

’T was comfort in her dying room

1

’T was just this time last year I died,

1

’T was later when the summer went

1

’T was such a little, little boat

1

Two butterflies went out at noon

1

Two lengths has every day,

1

Two swimmers wrestled on the spar

1

Undue significance a starving man attaches

1

Unto my books so good to turn

1

Upon the gallows hung a wretch,

1

Victory comes late,

1

Volcanoes be in Sicily

1

Wait till the majesty of Death

1

Water is taught by thirst;

1

We cover thee, sweet face

1

We learn in the retreating

1

We like March, his shoes are purple,

1

We never know how high we are

1

We never know we go, — when we are going

1

Went up a year this evening!

1

We outgrow love like other things

1

We play at paste

1

We should not mind so small a flower,

1

We spy the Forests and the Hills,

1

We thirst at first, — ’t is Nature’s act;

1

What if I say I shall not wait?

1

What inn is this

1

What mystery pervades a well!

1

What soft, cherubic creatures

1

When Etna basks and purrs,

1

When I hoped I feared,

1

When I was small, a woman died

1

When night is almost done,

1

When roses cease to bloom, dear,

1

Where every bird is bold to go,

1

Where ships of purple gently toss

1

Whether my bark went down to sea,

1

While I was fearing it, it came,

1

Who has not found the heaven below

1

Who is it seeks my pillow nights?

1

Who never lost, are unprepared

1

Who never wanted, — maddest joy

1

Who robbed the woods,

1

“ Whose are the little beds,” I asked,

1

Who were “ the Father and the Son ” —

1

Wild nights!

1

Wild nights!

1

Will there really be a morning?

1

Witchcraft has not a pedigree,

1

Within my reach!

1

You cannot put a fire out;

1

You left me, sweet, two legacies, —

1

Your riches taught me poverty

1

You’ve seen balloons set, haven’t you?

1