Emily Dickinson

Poetry for Young People

by Emily Dickinson, Frances Schoonmaker Bolin (Editor), Chi Chung (Illustrator)

Hope is the thing with feathers --
It's all I have to bring today --
I started early, took my dog --
I'm nobody! Who are you? --
I hide myself within my flower --
I dwell in possibility --
Will there really be a morning? --
I'll tell you how the sun rose --
She sweeps with many-colored brooms --
I know some lonely houses off the road --
Moon was but a chin of gold --
Pink, small, and punctual --
His bill an auger is --
Everywhere of silver --
I like to see it lap the miles --
Fuzzy fellow without feet --
It sifts from leaden sieves --
Narrow fellow in the grass --
Dear March, come in! --
Bee, I'm expecting you! --
Grass so little has to do --
Bird came down the walk --
Bee is not afraid of me --
Soft sea washed around the house --
To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee --
Pedigree of honey --
Forbidden fruit a flavor has --
Wind begun to rock the grass --
Morns are meeker than they were --
I have not told my garden yet --
My river runs to thee --
I never saw a moor --
There is no frigate like a book --
If I can stop one heart from breaking --
Word is dead --
In this short life

Genres: Poetry, Picture Books, Childrens, Classics, School, Nonfiction, Biography

48 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Emily Dickinson was an American poet who, despite the fact that less than a dozen of her nearly eighteen hundred poems were published during her lifetime, is widely considered one of the most original and influential poets of the 19th century.

Dickinson was born to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life. After she studied at the Amherst Academy for seven years in her youth, she spent a short time at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary before returning to her family's house in Amherst. Thought of as an eccentric by the locals, she became known for her penchant for white clothing and her reluctance to greet guests or, later in life, even leave her room. Most of her friendships were therefore carried out by correspondence.

Although Dickinson was a prolific private poet, fewer than a dozen of her nearly eighteen hundred poems were published during her lifetime.The work that was published during her lifetime was usually altered significantly by the publishers to fit the conventional poetic rules of the time. Dickinson's poems are unique for the era in which she wrote; they contain short lines, typically lack titles, and often use slant rhyme as well as unconventional capitalization and punctuation.Many of her poems deal with themes of death and immortality, two recurring topics in letters to her friends.

Although most of her acquaintances were probably aware of Dickinson's writing, it was not until after her death in 1886—when Lavinia, Emily's younger sister, discovered her cache of poems—that the breadth of Dickinson's work became apparent. Her first collection of poetry was published in 1890 by personal acquaintances Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd, both of whom heavily edited the content.

A complete and mostly unaltered collection of her poetry became available for the first time in 1955 when The Poems of Emily Dickinson was published by scholar Thomas H. Johnson. Despite unfavorable reviews and skepticism of her literary prowess during the late 19th and early 20th century, critics now consider Dickinson to be a major American poet.

For more information, please see http://www.answers.com/topic/emily-di...

Reviews

[Sara Hollar · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the way this book is laid out! There is a biography about the poet that we read along with a poem each day really made Emily Dickinson come alive! Her poems are harder, may be better for upper level students. But I will definitely be reading more in this series.

[Sherry Elmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another excellent book in the Poetry for Young People series. I love that this series does not “dumb down” poetry for young people, but offers excellent poems from some great poets. The usual suspects are here, such as “Hope is the thing with feathers,” “A narrow fellow in the grass,” and “There is no frigate like a book.” There are several poems that are riddles, which can be fun for children to try to guess.

These are a couple poems I especially liked:

“I never saw a moor,
I never saw the sea,
Yet know I how the heather looks,
And what a wave must be.

I never spoke with God,
Nor visited in heaven,
Yet certain am I of the spot
As if the chart were given.”


And this short poem that ends the book:

“In this short life
That only lasts an hour,
How much, how little,
Is within our power!”

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like a few of Dickinson poems but overall I'm not a fan. This book has beautiful illustrations and good biography of the author and a good taste of her poems.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Valuable, as is the entire series. The pictures are unfortunately, imo, *too* pretty: suitable for nursery decor, they trivialize the poetry.

Also unfortunate is that the poems described as riddles are illustrated by the answers....
No mention is made of her (supposed?) reluctance to publish the poems. The dash at the end of each line is omitted, making for a smoother read, no explanation given for why it sometimes included.

In this volume the introduction serves; each poem stands alone except for the illustrations.

Not my favorite Dickinson collection, nor my favorite of this series, by far.

[Rachel E. Meyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another nice little collection of Emily Dickinson poems. I enjoyed the illustrations and liked how they explained some of the more difficult words at the bottom of the page. Great for younger children.

[Sher · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent introduction to Emily Dickinson's poetry for young people and the young at heart--beautiful illustrations throughout and a helpful, clearly written and entertaining biography begins the book. 4.5

[suri (tay's version) · Rating 3 out of 5]

definitivamente tengo que leer muchísimo más de emily dickinson, me encanta su manera de escribir y expresar, generar, que es lo que siempre busco con la poesía, simplemente hermoso.

btw esta edición está preciosa, las ilustraciones hacen muchísimo más vívida la poesía de emily <3.

[Krista · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read almost every poem in this book in my classroom. The poems were decent but not anything overly engaging.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of just the right poems. The illustrations are charming!

[Jessica LeBaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poetry for Young People: Emily Dickinson
Frances Schoonmaker Bolin

This book is a collection of poetry written by the poet Emily Dickinson. It includes a total of thirty-six poems, an introduction, a bibliography, and an index. I found the introduction to be very useful and insightful because it discussed Emily Dickinson's life. In this way, this made me feel like I was more connected to her poetry, and I felt that I could understand the poetry more than I would if I had not read the introduction. At the end of many of Dickinson's poems, there are definitions for certain words that are available. For example, in her poem titled "Hope is the Thing with Feathers" the words gale, abash, and extremity are used and are included again at the end with their individual definitions listed next to them. I would use this book in a classroom with older kids--most likely students in the fifth grade and higher, because there are a lot of serious tones throughout the poems. The illustrations are somewhat useful in relation to the poems, but I feel like they are just used to spruce up the pages instead of actually trying to mean something in relation to the poetry.

[Karen GoatKeeper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Emily Dickinson wrote hundreds of poems over her lifetime. They show up tucked into anthologies or books for adults with page after page to read.
This book of poetry is so nice to sit down with. The poems reflect nature and farm life. The illustrations are lovely. The book is large and beautifully arranged.
Being for children, some of the words are defined as they are old words unfamiliar to many people today.
I found this a wonderful introduction to Dickinson's poetry. All of the poems were a delight to read and reread. One is most appropriate for those who love to read.
"There is no frigate like a book
To take us lands away,
Nor any coursers like a page
Of prancing poetry.
This traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of toll:
How frugal is the chariot
That bears a human soul!"

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This appealed to me because there is a brief biography of Dickinson; the poems are carefully selected for younger readers; and the art enhances the poems. I don't read poetry easily or for enjoyment, so I appreciated this compilation.

2024

3.7

This is for 'young people,' so there should be a brief comment on how to read a poem, using one of Dickinson's poems as an example.

Chung's illustrations are perfect for this purpose.

[Mona Bomgaars · Rating 5 out of 5]

A birthday gift for my grandniece, Ava, who will be 8 years old and demonstrates some poetry writing skills. This is a lovely book with a selection of Emily Dickinson poems

[Abby · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of some of Emily's greatest poems. The illustrations are pretty and help you understand the poem- my two year old likes to sit and listen to me read them and look at the pictures.

[Annawade Stevenson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Emily Dickinson, a poet that many of us are familiar with, has written many poems that are appropriate and relatable to children. The "Poetry for Young People" series features a collection of her poems that children may enjoy. The poems are beautifully written about nature, from the meadows to the sea, animals including birds and dogs, people, insects, the weather and changing seasons and death. One poem is actually about poetry itself. The illustrations are done by Chi Chung, where many of the images take up an entire page illustrating one point in each poem. Almost on every page in the book there is an illustration, while some are small and only enhance the poetry, and other larger, more detailed images provide deeper meaning and understanding. The images are truly artistic and elegant, with a rich variety of colors and free flowing lines that reflect Dickinson's poetry and aesthetic. I particularly like this series of her poems because it includes interesting introduction about the author. For example, I learned that Emily Dickinson mostly stayed in her home as she got older, and wrote about the ordinary things in life making them seem amazing. I also learned that she planted flowers in her garden in Amherst, Massachusetts so nature inspired her, and her poems were light and witty, which differed from the more common dark and serious poetry of her time period. This collection of poems includes insightful commentary and definitions of words that adults and children may not know. I definitely recommend this book and rate it five stars because we can use Emily Dickinson's poetry as a standard for which other poetry can be compared too.

Emily Dickinson's Poetry for Young People is comprised of high quality literary and artistic elements and memorable poems because of rhythm, compactness and surprise, figurative language, sound patterns and emotional intensity. Dickinson's poems are written in a rhythm called iambic, which shows that she strives her poems to be spoken similar to the rhythm one speaks naturally. She wrote her poems in a patterned and structured way, where lines one and three of her poems have eight syllables and lines two and four have six syllables. Every line usually starts with an unaccented syllable and then is followed by an accented syllable. For example, "To tell your name the livelong day" is one line in her poems that has eight syllables and starts with a pattern of unaccented to accented syllables. Most of Emily's poems have more unaccented syllables and the rhythm moves quickly because of the very short lines often connected by dashes. This could mean her poems are lighthearted and the speaker of the poem is cheerful. Her poems are very compact and surprising, and are written in four line stanzas. Her longest poem in the whole collection is only about six stanzas long. Yet, Dickinson manages to say and express a lot within a few short words. For example, in her short poem with no title, she writes "An Everywhere of Silver / With Ropes of Sand/ To keep it from effacing / The Track called Land. First, this surprises the reader because it is challenging the reader to guess what she is writing about because this is a unique description. Here, Emily writes about the ocean, and perhaps the ocean is so abundant and easily accessible that "it is everywhere". The sand is erasing the marks that the ocean leaves or the sand is keeping or avoiding the ocean from effacing the land. She also writes about the track called land, as if land is unfamiliar to the reader, and land may easily appear and disappear, which we see as one watches the waves on the beach. This example shows how compact Dickinson's poems are, in that one word has many meanings. It clearly took me a lot more words to even try to explain part of the meaning of the poem than the poem itself. With only one stanza of her poems, Dickinson is able to create an entire image that the reader can visualize.

Dickinson's poems contain a lot of figurative language that contributes to the imagery and meaning of her poems. For example, in her poem that starts with the line "The moon was but a chin of gold" she compares the moon to a girl, who's "forehead is of amplest blonde" and her eyes are like the "summer dew" while the universe is her shoe. Dickinson is personifying the moon as a girl who watches over the whole universe. She uses synesthesia to help the reader see concrete images from her abstract ideas. In this poem, the moon is privileged to be the "remotest star" but she might pass by your "twinkling door". This comparison is creative because most people know the moon is far away and remote but because she might pass by your door one day. Dickinson is taking the abstract idea of a distant moon and bringing that moon closer to the reader so that the moon will be just as likely to come by your door as your neighbor is. Her figurative language she includes in her poems makes the reader use of their five senses, from remembering smells and sounds. Dickinson also uses a lot of sound patterns so certain words are stressed and remembered and her poems flow well. In most of her last stanzas of every poem, line two and four rhyme. Usually, the rhymes are perfect as she rhymes words such as "toll" and "soul" and "way" and "day". Dickinson gives us a sense of conclusion and that everything is all right when her poems wrap up so perfectly. However, she also uses slant rhymes or off rhymes. In this collection of poems, I've noticed off rhymes on the last words of certain lines such as "bee" and aristocracy" as well as "beauty" and "antiquity". Another pattern she uses is extended metaphor. In Dickinson's poem, "Hope is the things with feathers", she compares hope to a variety of things and feelings throughout twelve lines. Lastly, even though her poems are generally light, they do have a lot of emotional intensity. For example, in one of her poems she says "I dwell in possibility/ A fairer house than Prose/ More numerous of windows/ Superior of Doors". She is giving the reader imagery of living in a house of possibility, most likely a house of poetry. She compares why poetry is better than prose, just as a house with more doors and windows is more open and has a bigger sense of freedom. The reader is receiving an emotional experience of being in a big house while reading an extended metaphor poem at the same time. Overall, due to all these literary and artistic elements which are abundant in Emily Dickinson's writing, this collection of poems that focused on nature, surprises and riddles, are a great way to introduce poetry to kids, as long as one doesn't overwhelm kids with the difficult vocabulary and the complexity of meanings that most of these poems contain.

[Hope McCabe · Rating 5 out of 5]

1. In this collection of beloved Emily Dickinson poems, children are able to delve into the world of Dickinson’s poems at a level in which they will genuinely understand her poetry. The illustrations and captions make the poems relatable and easier to understand by providing explanations. This book collection features famous Emily Dickinson poems including, “I’m nobody, who are you?” and “Hope is the thing with feathers” and more.
2. This collection of poems is beautiful and enticing for children to desire to read. With bright and intricate illustrations, the poems are brought to life. Children will enjoy and learn from these poems—especially with the clever captions in the corner with additional information incase children are unaware of what Dickinson meant in her poems.
3. Other books I may pair this with: Sing a Song of Seasons: A Nature Poem for Each Day of the Year by Fiona Waters; Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein; If I Were In Charge of the World and Other Worries by Judith Viorst; Forget-Me-Not: Poems to Learn by Heart by Mary Ann Hobermann; Poetry for Young People: Carl Sandburg by Frances Schoonmaker Bolin
4. How to use as a mentor text: This book could easily be used as a mentor text during a poetry unit! The characteristics could be taken from her poems and could be the anchor text to a text set. It could also help introduce children to other poetry. It can also serve as a mentor text to help children replicate and become poets themselves! They can use Dickinson’s style to create their own poems.

[Stephanie Glenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Summary: This collection of poems by Emily Dickinson is light and delightful and the watercolor illustrations add beauty to the page. Young readers will experience a variety of topics within this collection, which will hopefully pique the interest of a variety of readers.

Evaluation: The collection of poems begins with an introduction to Emily Dickinson. This section gives background about the poet and details about her life, including her writing. The 35 poems included in this collection follow the introduction. My only complaint about the book is that the titles of the poems appear only on the Contents page, and not on the actual page in the book where the poem is located. One of my favorite features about this book is that there are definitions (and sometimes commentary) on each page for terms which are found within the poems. This will be especially helpful for young readers who may not be familiar with the language used in the early 19th century.

Teaching Idea: Of course, this book would be ideal for teaching a unit on poetry. Iambic timbre is used throughout most of Emily Dickinson's poetry. There are usually four lines to a stanza. This could be used to model the sing-song quality of poetry. There are a wide variety of topics (imagery, personification, etc.) in Dickinson's poetry that could be used for teaching.

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

About the book: This book was a collection of Emily Dickinson’s poetry, and specifically intended for young people, as it says in the title. This book contains many pictures that go with the poems, and some definitions for words that younger audiences might not know. The introduction to the book contains a lot of historical information about Emily Dickinson and her poetry.

My thoughts: Even though Emily Dickinson’s poetry seems simple because it is short, it is most definitely more complex than it seems! I liked reading Dickinson’s poetry, some of which I was familiar with, and some which I was not as familiar with. I appreciated that there was an introduction with Dickinson’s background, as I think it helped me put context to her poetry. Knowing more about the author in general as well as the author’s personality allows the reader to dive deeper into the meaning behind their writing.
I also liked that there were illustrations for each and every poem. If there was a poem I wasn’t sure exactly what it was talking about, the picture gave me a better idea. I appreciated that the editors included some of Dickinson’s riddles for the reader to figure out, though I think it would be more beneficial to not have the illustrations, because the reader could guess the riddle through the picture instead of dwelling on the words.

5/5 stars! Very well done.

[Gillian Getlan · Rating 5 out of 5]

It begins with an introduction about Emily Dickinson. Then the poetry begins, with titleless poems, illustrations varying in size from small to a whole page, and definitions of uncommon words Emily used. The poems illustrate ordinary things in life in incredibly witty, wonderful ways.

I love the introduction. It really lays a foundation to appreciate and understand her poetry more, in terms of writing style and meaning. The poems are really lovely and the definitions that accompany many of the poems are subtle and very useful for young children. The poems themselves are short and simple, making it fun to continue reading more and more.

I would connect this book to Honey, I Love by Eloise Greenfield. In this picture book, the author narrates the things in life she loves. Like Emily Dickinson, she brings warmth and beauty to everyday things like laughing with her friends or kissing her mama's arm.

This book would be wonderful as a mentor text for writing. This book could be used to examine Emily's writing craft more in depth and compare and contrast different poems, in terms of her typical iambic rhythm, themes, and word choice.

[Cathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I saw a cartoon about Emily Dickinson that made me want to reread this classic.

This particular collection of hers may be for children, but it's still quite enjoyable.

Favorites:
"Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all."

"I'm nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there's a pair of us - don't tell!
They'd banish us, you know.

"How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog."

"I'll tell you how the sun rose, -
A ribbon at a time.
The steeples swam in amethyst,
The news like squirrels ran."

"A narrow fellow in the grass
Occasionally rides;
You may have met him, - did you not,
His notice sudden is....

"But never met this fellow,
Attended or alone,
Without a tighter breathing,
And zero at the bone."

[Taylor Pierson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Genre: Poetry

Unique Feature: There are many unique features within this book. The book offers a compilation of Emily Dickinson poems chosen for a younger audience. The poems are listed and organized in a logical manor within the book. This organization and flow helps the reader through reading the entire book and guides them from one poem to the next. The illustrations that accompany the poems also serve to enrich the reading experience.

Grades: This book is best used in 5th grade and above. This is due to the volume of words and the complexity of the text. If individual poems were assigned as reading, the grade level could fluctuate greatly. However, the book as a whole would be best utilized in 8th grade and above.

[Tiyahna Ridley-Padmore · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the Poetry for Young People series, Scholastic aims to breath new life into the work of classic poets by making their poetry more accessible to a younger audience. The book includes a biography of the original author as well as a carefully selected series of poems accompanied by illustrations. The Poetry for Young People series also includes an index to help define new words that readers may come across.

As far as books in this series go, Emily Dickinson's edition was one of the more memorable, engaging and accessible.I distinctly remember memorizing "I'm nobody, who are you?" and reciting it constantly. In fact, I still know it by heart today as a result of this book. That said, I was reciting the poem blindly and certainly didn't understand the meaning of the poem until much later. Even with the index, young readers would likely struggle to draw meaning from some of these pieces of work.

My mom bought me this book series as a child and though I would read everything at that time with little no discrimination, I could not get through these. Perhaps they would be better suited as a teaching resource for students in grade 7 who are learning poetry.

[Vicki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another "Poetry for Young People" book.

There is beautiful art as I have come to expect from this series. Every book has a very different style of art with watercolors, pastels, oils, or acrylics. They have done a good job of matching the art to the different styles of poetry. I really like that they chose to have this art more simple with a bit of whimsy like the bee holding an invitation. The animals in the pictures are especially expressive and fun.

The write-up about the authors is just the right amount for a young reader's interest and this is the first of these books I have read where I actually think a young person could understand and enjoy the poetry. (The Robert Browning book of the series was a complete fail in this regard.)

[Hailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poetry for Young People: Emily Dickinson is a book of poetry that shares the original poems by Emily Dickinson. Even though some of the poems are very deep and could be confusing for young children, this poetry book is specified for young children and has definitions of certain words on each page to help them comprehend the words being written by Emily Dickinson. I really enjoyed the beautiful illustrations that were provided that make the book engaging and appealing to young children who may not completely have an interest for poetry. I would use this book when teaching about poetry and also famous poets who have had a significant impact on poetry.

[Julia Stephenson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read a few of Emily Dickenson poems in college, so I wanted to select a few more ones to read for my Adult Summer Reading Challenge. So I went to the library, checked this out, and read quite a few beautiful poems. It contained poems of the beauty of nature, animals, and her environment. Dickenson also wrote about how people expected her to act around others. There were poems about friendship, and her family dynamics. Then, the poems started to explore other topics. Several poems touched upon the topics of sadness, frustration and eventually her own death. Dickenson definitely had a way with words.

[Daniella Delgado · Rating 4 out of 5]

1. N/A
2. 2nd- 6th
3. This book is filled with lots of poems. The poems in this book are longer poems with higher level vocabulary. The pictures are very soft and realistic looking and there was a picture for every poem.
4. I think that this book has a nice variety of vocabulary and length of poems. These poems were longer than i expected them to be. The pictures were very well illustrated and the poems were enjoyable to read.
5. Poetry, rhyming.

[Tandava Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now I've read 6 in this series and this is so far the all-around best. The poetry is classic Emily Dickinson, while still being reasonably suitable for age range that would want a picture book. It has a bunch of my old favorites and some new favorites as well. The illustrations are very nice and accompany the poems well. I was a little bummed that they standardized Emily's capitalization and took out most of her dashes, since those are such a part of her style, but I suppose it's forgivable.

[Nicola Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was given to my daughter many years ago. She loved it,as I do. The illustrations are beautiful and add to the magic of this book. Emily Dickinson has such a wonderful way of seeing the world and her poetry is accessible to all. This book, I agree really is a wonderful way of introducing young readers to the marvels of poetry.A Perfect addition to any teachers library or a wonderful gift for a curious child.

[Diz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent introduction to the poetry of Emily Dickinson for children. The book starts with a four-page section that introduces Dickinson to the readers. It portrays her in a way that is charming--as someone who was a bit out of the ordinary but deeply loved by her community. After that, selected poems are presented with large illustrations that help bring the poems alive for young readers. If there are words that might be difficult for children, the meanings are given in footnotes.

[Colby S. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought Poetry for Young People was an okay book. I didn't really like how the author went about the some of the poems, but the majority of poems were okay. I did like the poem about the bee getting a letter from a fly, I thought it was kind of humorous in a way. Overall I didn't really like this book as much as other books, but I did think it was okay.