Browse alphabetically through more than 9,000 words in Dickinson’s poetry, as defined in the Emily Dickinson Lexicon, based in part on her dictionary, Webster's 1844 American Dictionary of the English Language.
How know it from a Summer's Day?
It's Fervors are as firm --
And nothing in the Countenance
But scintillates the same --
Yet Birds examine it and flee --
And Vans without a name
Inspect the Admonition
And sunder as they came --
Manuscript: About 1876 (BPL Higg 95). This unpublished poem in pencil was mailed, without
salutation or signature, to Mary Channing Higginson. It is accompanied by an envelope
(postmark illegible) addressed "Mrs Higginson. / Newport. / Rhode Island -- ". ED made a
point of writing Mrs. Higginson during 1876, realizing the seriousness of her illness. She died
2 September 1877. This might well have been sent as a seasonal greeting, during the week or
two of Indian summer, in late October or early November.