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Take Your Poet to Work: Emily Dickinson

By Will Willingham 32 Comments

Ever wish you could take your favorite poet along with you to work? You know, pop open the cash register drawer to make change for a customer and find her gazing back at you with those deep, dark eyes? And if you work from home? We think reclusive Emily Dickinson is the perfect poet to take to work in your home office. She won’t even complain if you work in your pajamas–she’ll be ghosting about in a house dress that’s as white as the bed linens.

Take Your Poet to Work Day is coming July 20, 2016.

To help you play and celebrate with us, we’re releasing poets each week in a compact, convenient format that you can tuck in your pocket, tool belt, or lunchbox. We’ve given you Sara Teasdale,  Pablo Neruda,  and T. S. Eliot. We even released a full collection,  The Haiku Masters: Matsuo Basho, Yosa Buson, and Kobayashi Issa.

Is there a poet you’d like to see? Give us your suggestions in the comments. We’ll see what we can do.

Take Your Poet to Work: Emily Dickinson

Take Your Poet to Work - Emily Dickinson

 

Click here for a downloadable version of  Take Your Poet to Work – Emily Dickinson that you can print and color.

Perhaps in honor of Emily Dickinson, you could hold all of your business conversations from the other side of your office door for the day. Your coworkers would surely be impressed by your in-depth knowledge of the poet’s personality.

Saying nothing… sometimes says the most. — Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst, MA, in 1830, the daughter of state and federal politician Edward Dickinson. A prolific poet, Dickinson was known to draft poems on the backs of envelopes and chocolate wrappers. Nearly 1800 of her poems were discovered by her family following her death, many in 40 handbound volumes she had sewn together, written in her own hand with her famously unorthodox punctuation.

emily dickinsonThe enigmatic poet is remembered as a recluse, rarely leaving the Dickinson estate. While she did receive callers at her home, conversations were often held from opposite sides of a closed door. She lived with her sister, Lavinia, while her brother Austin and his wife, Susan Gilbert, lived down a narrow path on the property. Her writing reflects profound loneliness as well as a deep capacity for love and affection, much of which is believed to have been shared with Gilbert.

Her first collection of poems, Poems by Emily Dickinson, was published four years after her death, with Poems: Second Series and Poems: Third Series following in the next several years. Like Walt Whitman (who she reportedly never read), she is considered one of the most influential poets in the emergence of a distinctly American poetic voice.

Visitors to Emily Dickinson’s grave can witness a lasting image of her perspective on life. The etching on her stone marking the date of her death bears the words “Called Back.”

Now, while you’re on the other side of that office door, perhaps you might read a couple of Dickinson’s poems to a coworker:

“Hope” is the thing with feathers – (314)

“Hope” is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all –
And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –
And sore must be the storm –
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm –
I’ve heard it in the chillest land –
And on the strangest Sea –
Yet – never – in Extremity,
It asked a crumb – of me.

 

Wild nights – Wild nights! (269)

Wild nights – Wild nights!
Were I with thee
Wild nights should be
Our luxury!
Futile – the winds –
To a Heart in port –
Done with the Compass –
Done with the Chart!
Rowing in Eden –
Ah – the Sea!
Might I but moor – tonight –
In thee!

Learn more about Take Your Poet to Work Day and our featured poets

Browse more Emily Dickinson

Post and illustrations by Will Willingham.

__________________________

How to Read a Poem by Tania Runyan How to Read a Poem uses images like the mouse, the hive, the switch (from the Billy Collins poem)—to guide readers into new ways of understanding poems. Anthology included.

“I require all our incoming poetry students—in the MFA I direct—to buy and read this book.”

—Jeanetta Calhoun Mish

Buy How to Read a Poem Now!

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Will Willingham
Will Willingham
Director of Many Things; Senior Editor, Designer and Illustrator at Tweetspeak Poetry
I used to be a claims adjuster, helping people and insurance companies make sense of loss. Now, I train other folks with ladders and tape measures to go and do likewise. Sometimes, when I’m not scaling small buildings or crunching numbers with my bare hands, I read Keats upside down. My first novel is Adjustments.
Will Willingham
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Filed Under: Blog, Emily Dickinson, Hope Poems, love poems, love poetry, Poems, poetry, Take Your Poet to Work Day

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About Will Willingham

I used to be a claims adjuster, helping people and insurance companies make sense of loss. Now, I train other folks with ladders and tape measures to go and do likewise. Sometimes, when I’m not scaling small buildings or crunching numbers with my bare hands, I read Keats upside down. My first novel is Adjustments.

Comments

  1. L. L. Barkat says

    June 29, 2013 at 1:04 pm

    !

    such an amusing idea to read poetry through the door 🙂

    Reply
  2. Charity Singleton Craig says

    July 1, 2013 at 2:39 pm

    This is the best idea I’ve ever heard of to get poetry into the hands of everyone! I love it, and your illustrations are awesome. I’d love to see Wendell Berry and Billy Collins! Or are you stick with poets no longer living?

    Reply

Trackbacks

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  5. Take Your Poet to Work: Rumi - Tweetspeak Poetry says:
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  7. Take Your Poet to Work: Christina Rossetti | says:
    July 2, 2014 at 8:01 am

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  8. Take Your Poet to Work: Sylvia Plath | says:
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  10. Take Your Poet to Work Day: Callie's Story | says:
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    […] found a bunch of books with Emily Dickinson and Langston Hughes in them and thought we’d start with those two.  Hadley also found some books […]

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  19. Take Your Poet to Work: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - says:
    July 13, 2016 at 8:01 am

    […] ago with Sara Teasdale, Pablo Neruda, T. S. Eliot, Rumi, Edgar Allan Poe, and the reclusive Emily Dickinson (for folks who work at home). We even released a full collection, The Haiku Masters: Matsuo […]

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  20. Take Your Poet to Work Day: On Location - says:
    July 20, 2016 at 1:09 pm

    […] have never guessed that Emily Dickinson would ever say she was ready for her close-up, but Pablo Neruda and Sara Teasdale talked her into a […]

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  21. TAKE YOUR POET TO WORK DAY: ON LOCATION | ELA in the middle says:
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  22. Take Your Poet to Work Day: Jorge Luis Borges - says:
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    […] ago with Sara Teasdale, Pablo Neruda, T. S. Eliot, Rumi, Edgar Allan Poe, and the reclusive Emily Dickinson (for folks who work at […]

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  23. Take Your Poet to Work Day: Rosalía de Castro - says:
    July 5, 2018 at 8:00 am

    […] Teasdale,  Pablo Neruda,  T. S. Eliot,  Rumi,  Edgar Allan Poe,  and the reclusive Emily Dickinson (for folks who work at […]

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  24. Take Your Poet to Work Day: Juana Inés de la Cruz - says:
    July 11, 2018 at 8:00 am

    […] Teasdale,  Pablo Neruda,  T. S. Eliot,  Rumi,  Edgar Allan Poe,  and the reclusive Emily Dickinson (for folks who work at […]

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  25. Take Your Poet to Work Day: Rosario Castellanos - says:
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  26. Take Your Poet to Work: John Keats - says:
    October 15, 2018 at 11:49 am

    […] you Sara Teasdale,  Pablo Neruda,  T. S. Eliot,  Rumi,  Edgar Allan Poe,  and the reclusive Emily Dickinson (for folks who work at home). We even released a full collection,  The Haiku Masters: Matsuo […]

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  27. Another Poetry at Work Day is in the Books - says:
    January 16, 2019 at 8:00 am

    […] On Poetry at Work Day, it’s always good to hear from the patron saint of work-from-home employees, Emily Dickinson. […]

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  28. It's Take Your Poet to School Week! - says:
    April 1, 2019 at 7:47 am

    […] Teasdale Pablo Neruda The Haiku Masters Edgar Allan Poe T.S. Eliot Rumi Emily Dickinson John Keats Adrienne Rich W.B. Yeats Langston Hughes Sylvia Plath Christina Rossetti Walt Whitman […]

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  30. BECOMING EMILY says:
    May 16, 2021 at 9:52 am

    […] Now my hedges, in their new softness of shape, invite cardinals, chickadees, sparrows. The birds rustle the little leaves as they play in and out, deciding where they will go next. The red maple at the top of the hill? Or the hemlocks lining the slim driveway? I delight to watch the birds from my second-floor bedroom window, where I feel a bit like a modern Emily Dickinson. […]

    Reply

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