“This is my letter to the world” Summary

“This is my letter to the world” Themes

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  Loneliness and Isolation

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  The Purpose of Poetry

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “This is my letter to the world”

• Lines 1-4

  This is my letter to the World
  That never wrote to Me —
  The simple News that Nature told
  With tender Majesty

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 5-8

  Her Message is committed
  To Hands I cannot see —
  For love of Her — Sweet — countrymen
  Judge tenderly — of Me

  

  

  

  

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“This is my letter to the world” Symbols

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  Letter

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  News

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“This is my letter to the world” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Enjambment

  

  

  

  

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• End-Stopped Line

  

  

  

  

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• Caesura

  

  

  

  

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• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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• Assonance

  

  

  

  

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• Consonance

  

  

  

  

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• Personification

  

  

  

  

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• Parallelism

  

  

  

  

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• Synecdoche

  

  

  

  

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“This is my letter to the world” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• World
• News
• Nature
• Majesty
• Message
• Committed
• Countrymen

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “This is my letter to the world”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“This is my letter to the world” Speaker

“This is my letter to the world” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “This is my letter to the world”

More “This is my letter to the world” Resources

• External Resources

  • Dickinson's Own Words — Images from the Emily Dickinson archive of the original manuscripts for "This is my letter to the world," in her handwriting and with her original punctuation.

  • About Dickinson's Fascicles — A brief article on Dickinson's manuscript books—or fascicles—by Dorothy Huff Oberhaus.

  • Emily Dickinson Biography — A detailed biography of Emily Dickinson from the Poetry Foundation.

  • The History of Transcendentalism — A detailed article on the history and philosophy of transcendentalism, from Stanford University.

  • The Poem Out Loud — A reading of "This is my letter to the world."

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Emily Dickinson

  • A Bird, came down the Walk

  • After great pain, a formal feeling comes –

  • A Light exists in Spring

  • A Murmur in the Trees—to note—

  • A narrow Fellow in the Grass

  • An awful Tempest mashed the air—

  • As imperceptibly as grief

  • A still—Volcano—Life—

  • Because I could not stop for Death —

  • Before I got my eye put out

  • Fame is a fickle food

  • Hope is the thing with feathers

  • I cannot live with You –

  • I cautious, scanned my little life

  • I could bring You Jewels—had I a mind to—

  • I died for Beauty—but was scarce

  • I dwell in Possibility –

  • I felt a Funeral, in my Brain

  • If I can stop one heart from breaking

  • I had been hungry, all the Years

  • I have a Bird in spring

  • I heard a Fly buzz - when I died -

  • I like a look of Agony

  • I like to see it lap the Miles

  • I measure every Grief I meet

  • I’m Nobody! Who are you?

  • I started Early — Took my Dog —

  • I taste a liquor never brewed

  • It was not Death, for I stood up

  • I—Years—had been—from Home—

  • Much Madness is divinest Sense -

  • My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun

  • Nature is what we see

  • One need not be a Chamber — to be Haunted

  • Publication — is the Auction

  • Safe in their Alabaster Chambers

  • Success is counted sweetest

  • Tell all the truth but tell it slant —

  • The Brain—is wider than the Sky—

  • The Bustle in a House

  • The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants

  • There came a Wind like a Bugle

  • There is no Frigate like a Book

  • There's a certain Slant of light

  • There's been a Death, in the Opposite House

  • The saddest noise, the sweetest noise

  • The Sky is low — the Clouds are mean

  • The Soul has bandaged moments

  • The Soul selects her own Society

  • The Wind – tapped like a tired Man –

  • They shut me up in Prose –

  • We grow accustomed to the Dark

  • Whose cheek is this?

  • Wild nights - Wild nights!