It is too bad that Emily Dickinson's talent was only celebrated and recognized posthumously.
She was an American poet, and is now one of the best known and most mysterious cultural figure in the history of literature.
Emily Dickinson wrote around 1800 poems, but only 10 of them were published in newspapers during her lifetime. From the very beginning, editors ignored Dickinson for her idiosyncrasies and formatted her writing to match a more conventional style.
However, the true power of Dickinson’s work can be felt in her manuscripts, which are now available for every poetry lover and reader out there.
Emily Dickinson’s original style profoundly influenced the direction of 20th-century poetry. Her short lines and verses about her inner life, thoughts and feelings give her one of the most distinctive voices in the American poetry to this day.
Mostly written in few but wise words, here are 19 meaningful Emily Dickinson quotes about life and love.
If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain.
Saying nothing sometimes says the most.
I am nobody! Who are you? Are you a nobody, too?
Forever is composed of nows.
Dogs are better than human beings because they know but do not tell.
The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience.
Truth is so rare, it is delightful to tell it.
Hold dear to your parents for it is a scary and confusing world without them.
The heart wants what it wants -- or else it does not care.
I am out with lanterns, looking for myself.
We turn not older with years but newer every day.
Unable are the loved to die. For love is immortality.
We never know how high we are till we are called to rise. Then if we are true to form our statures touch the skies.
Love is anterior to life, posterior to death, initial of creation, and the exponent of breath.
People need hard times and oppression to develop psychic muscles.
Till it has loved, no man or woman can become itself.
Luck is not chance, it's toil; fortune's expensive smile is earned.
To hope means to be ready at every moment for that which is not yet born, and yet not become desperate if there is no birth in our lifetime.
That it will never come again is what makes life sweet. Dwell in possibility. Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough.
Woman holding her child's clothing.Marla Branyan / @marla_branyan
