Monday, April 6, 2009

Poetry Month

It’s All I Have to Bring Today

It's all I have to bring today--
This, and my heart beside--
This, and my heart, and all the fields--
And all the meadows wide--
Be sure you count--
should I forget
Some one the sum could tell--
This, and my heart,
and all the Bees
Which in the Clover dwell.

~Emily Dickinson
It's no secret that I love poetry. It enlightens, inspires, dreams. In honor of National Poetry Month, I thought I would share with you one of my favorite poets.
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) was more widely known in her lifetime as a gardener rather than a poet. Less than a dozen of her 1800 poems were published during her lifetime. Rumors abound about her quiet reclusive lifestyle. Withdrawing from seminary after the deaths of her second cousin/close friend and her principal, Emily spent most of her days attending to household activities at the family homestead and corresponding with acquaintances. After her death, Emily's sister Lavinia found nearly eighteen-hundred poems locked in a chest. Lavinia became obsessed with having Emily's work published, prompting the first volume to appear four years after her sister's death.

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