Emily Dickinson was one of the most reclusive of all poets. She spent much of her life in seclusion in her father’s house in Amherst, and only a handful of her 1800 poems were published in her lifetime. Credit for the posthumous publication of her work must be given to her editor and friend Thomas W. Higginson, who reported that, in spite of the voluminous correspondence which passed between himself and Dickinson, he only met her twice in person.

Dickinson’s poems are all short; few of them exceed twenty lines. Within her writing, the most mundane events of domestic life appear as events of momentous significance. The original editors of this collection write that, “The main quality of these poems is that of extraordinary grasp and insight, uttered with an uneven vigor, sometimes exasperating, seemingly wayward, but really unsought and inevitable.”

Full cast of narrators: Kendra Murray, Nancy Beard, Jennifer Fournier, Erin Grassie, Linda Barrans, Peter Sardi, Marie Hoffman, Melissa Green, Gregory Dwyer, Lee Ann Howlett, Sara Sheckells, Roberta Jackson, Lillian Warkentin, Caroline McLaughlin, Ron Altman, Lyndal Curran Doolan, Susan Iannucci, Lisa Negrón, Charlie Albers, Brandon Keener, Larry Wilson, Denis Daly, Kylie Elliott, Erin Bateman, Anthony St. Pierre, Amy Soakes, Stephanie Németh-Parker, Tim Dehn, Ginger White.

Originally published in 1890.