Quote#Nature
They shut me up in Prose -
Quote byEmily Dickinson · 1830–1886
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: They shut me up in Prose (Fr).
English (original)
They shut me up in Prose - As when a little Girl They put me in the Closet - Because they liked me "still" -Still! Could themself have peeped - And seen my Brain - go round - They might as wise have lodged a Bird For Treason - in the Pound -
— Emily Dickinson
More from Emily Dickinson
My friends are my "estate." Forgive me then the avarice to hoard them.
If I read a book [and] it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any …
God is sitting here, looking into my very soul to see if I think right thoughts. Yet I am not afraid, for I try to be right and good; and He knows every one of my struggles.
Friday I tasted life. It was a vast morsel. A circus passed the house — still I feel the red in my mind though the drums are out. [...] The lawn is full of south and the odors tangle, and I hear to-day for the first the river in the tree.
I had no portrait, now, but am small, like the Wren, and my Hair is bold, like the Chestnut Bur — and my eyes, like the Sherry in the Glass, that the Guest leaves — Would this do just as well?
To live is so startling, it leaves but little room for other occupations.