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Emily DickinsonA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
The poem has many genres. It’s an epistolary poem––it addresses a particular person. Though the speaker doesn’t name the addressee in the poem, the unnamed person or figure is the audience: The poem is for them. As with many epistolary poems, the genre creates an intimate tone, leaving the reader feeling like they’re reading someone’s private correspondence. Due to the intimate tone and suggestive language, the poem works as an erotic poem. Erotic is the proper term because it’s sexual, but it’s not merely sexual: The speaker expresses desire that transcends physical attraction. Since the poem is short and conveys the speaker’s emotions, it qualifies as a lyric.
The speaker doesn’t have a name or identifying characteristics, and neither does the addressee. What defines the speaker is their exclamatory desire for the addressee. The poem features five exclamation marks, so the speaker isn’t shy about sharing their effusive feelings for the person.
The authorial context specifies the speaker and the addressee. In one reading, the speaker becomes Emily Dickinson, the person turns into Susan Huntington Dickinson, and the poem becomes an emblem of Emily’s erotic love for Susan.
By Emily Dickinson
A Bird, came down the Walk
Emily Dickinson
A Clock stopped—
Emily Dickinson
A narrow Fellow in the Grass (1096)
Emily Dickinson
Because I Could Not Stop for Death
Emily Dickinson
"Faith" is a fine invention
Emily Dickinson
Fame Is a Fickle Food (1702)
Emily Dickinson
Hope is a strange invention
Emily Dickinson
"Hope" Is the Thing with Feathers
Emily Dickinson
I Can Wade Grief
Emily Dickinson
I Felt a Cleaving in my Mind
Emily Dickinson
I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain
Emily Dickinson
If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking
Emily Dickinson
If I should die
Emily Dickinson
If you were coming in the fall
Emily Dickinson
I heard a Fly buzz — when I died
Emily Dickinson
I'm Nobody! Who Are You?
Emily Dickinson
Much Madness is divinest Sense—
Emily Dickinson
Success Is Counted Sweetest
Emily Dickinson
Tell all the truth but tell it slant
Emily Dickinson
The Only News I Know
Emily Dickinson