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Poems by Emily Dickinson, Three Series, Complete

By Dickinson, Emily

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. Largely unpublished and unknown during her lifetime, her work is now widely regarded as canonical. The Poetry Foundation describes her as having "created in her writing a distinctively elliptical language for expressing what was possible but not yet realized."

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Project Gutenberg eBook #12242 — plain-text edition
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44 jurisdictions · latest check 31 Aug 2026

author Dickinson, Emily died 1886; editor Todd, Mabel Loomis died 1932; editor; writer of the preface Higginson, Thomas Wentworth died 1911. All identified copyright-relevant edition contributors are beyond the conservative expiry cutoff applied from the cited jurisdictional duration rule as of 2026-08-31.

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Poems by Emily Dickinson, Three Series, Complete

XXX.

Dickinson, Emily

I felt a funeral in my brain, And mourners, to and fro,Kept treading, treading, till it seemed That sense was breaking through.

And when they all were seated, A service like a drumKept beating, beating, till I thought My mind was going numb.

And then I heard them lift a box, And creak across my soulWith those same boots of lead, again. Then space began to toll

As all the heavens were a bell, And Being but an ear,And I and silence some strange race, Wrecked, solitary, here.

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