The Single Hound: Poems of a Lifetime

by Emily Dickinson, Martha Gilbert Dickinson Bianchi (Preface)

Reprinted for the first time in almost a century, The Single Hound is the first volume of Emily Dickinson’s collected poems. Deceptive in its simplicity, Emily Dickinson’s verse is a monumental testament to her poetic genius. Encompassing the entire gamut of emotion and feeling, her poems are remarkable for their honesty, often in the face of severe trials and tribulations. Extraordinary, too, is her experimental use of structure and grammar, a device that has led her to be hailed as one of the most creative and individual poets of the 19th century. Emily Dickinson is one of America’s leading experimental poets; her work has been the inspiration for a host of feminist writers.

Genres: Poetry, Classics

170 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

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

[Auntie Terror]

Rtc

[m.]

Still not a poetry fan but I will cry every time I read "Sue — for evermore!" just typing it out gave me chest pains

[Audrey Ng]

This was an odd introduction to Dickinson’s poetry, it was overall enjoyable to read but didn’t click with me that well. I was really interested in these poem’s length (short in stanza and verse) as well as her use of the dash (interestingly frequent). My next step is definitely reading the complete collection of Emily Dickinson’s poetry.

[Bludniq Sin]

“That she forgot me was the least,
I felt it second pain:
That I was worthy to forget
Was most I thought upon.”

Screaming, crying, throwing up, when reading this.

[sweetslittlejean]

I see thee better in the dark —
I do not need a light;
The love of thee a prism be
Excelling violet.

apesar de ficar claro o quão maravilhosa, brilhante e talentosa a emily dickinson é, eu não me conectei com a maioria dos poemas dessa coleção!! mesmo assim, ela é um gênio, e todos os poemas com os quais eu me emocionei ficaram muito marcados em mim. quero muito ler mais dela pra ver se acho alguma coleção com a qual eu me relaciono mais emocionalmente <3

e aqui tão algumas passagens favoritas sobre amor, aos olhos dela:

That love is all there is / Is all we know of love —

Love reckons itself alone

To love thee year by year
May less appear
Than sacrifice and cease.
However, dear,
Forever might be short,
I thought to show
And so I pieced it with a flower for now.

anyway… 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈
emily dickinson: exists
* ivy by taylor swift plays * so yEAH ITS A WAR ITS THE GODAMN FIGHT OF MY LIFE AND YOU STAAARTED IT, YOU STARTED IT!!! oOoOh i cant!! stop you putting roots in my dreamland!! my house of stone, your ivy grows, and now i’m covered in youUuUuUu!!

… (eu tô 100% convencida de que ivy é sobre a emily dickinson nobody talk to me ✋)

[Danny Lindsay]

I'm trying to read more poetry cuz I really love words and I like how poets use words in weird and surprising and thrilling ways. A bracing linguistic risk is kinda like having a cold drink thrown in your face.

I've only really read that Neal Astley compilation called Staying Alive: Real Poems for Unreal Times. I think that book is a gateway for a lot of people.

I love Mary Oliver and I like Jack Kerouac's poetry (especially October in the Railroad Earth). I like John Ashberry (At North Farm is my favorite reverse sonnet). I like Rilke and Keats. I love Wilfred Owen's WWI poems. I'm not crazy about Wallace Stevens.

This was my first time reading Emily Dickinson. She's obviously talented but I wasn't crazy about these poems. They just didn't hit me emotionally.

She has a very economical use of language and her poems almost seem like they're aiming to be aphorisms? Not like Oscar Wilde's aphorisms, which are mainly witty, but universal truths uttered succinctly.

Dickens seems less interested in emotional crescendo than in control. Most of these poems have the same meter (iambic tetrameter or trimeter). I'm not a slave to rhyming or anything. I hate it when writers rhyme too much. It can be a form of linguistic bondage. So I like that Dickinson isn't overly concerned with rhyming. But it just felt like one poem ran into the next with not a whole lot of differentiation.

Reading these poems felt almost voyeuristic. Like I was witnessing something I shouldn't, someone trying to work out their own private mythology. Trying to grab onto a series of vanishing evocations.

I'm not going to avoid poetry from here on out but I think I tend to like poets who paint with brighter colors.

[angela]

i can’t accurately review this book for two reasons: (1) english is not my first language and even though i read mostly in english i definitely felt the language barrier with this one; (2) i'm not a gigantic poetry lover.
with that being said, I have to say that, in my personal opinion, ‘The Single Hound’ is not a very good compilation for an introduction to Emily Dickinson. i did enjoy a small part of the poems I was able to understand and relate to and i can understand why she is such a famous poet.

[Manday]

This was my first real exposure to Emily Dickinson, and I found it so-so. While some of her verse is very clever and insightful, there is too much religion in a lot of it for me.

[Hanane]

A quite enjoyable read. I liked some poems more than others. I still want to try more of Dickinson's poetry. Perhaps I'll get a selected collection next.
Some of my favourites in this book:

That she forgot me was the least,
I felt it second pain:
That I was worthy to forget
Was most I thought upon.
*****

If I were half so fine myself,
I'd notice nobody!
*****

The duties of the wind are few -
To cast the ships at sea,
Establish March,
The floods escort,
And usher liberty.
*****

The soul's superior instants,
Occur to her alone,
*****

The hills erect their purple heads,
The rivers lean to see-
Yet Man has not, of all the throng,
A curiosity.
*****

[tara]

I showed her heights she never saw --
"Would'st climb?" I said;
She said, "Not so" --
"With me?" I said, "With me?"
I showed her secrets:
Morning's nest,
The rope that nights were put across --
And now, "Would'st have me for a guest?"
She could not find her yes --
And then, I brake my life, and lo!
A light for her did solemn glow,
The larger as her face withdrew --
And could she, further, "No?"

I love Emily Dickinson for all she is and all she writes from the heart. This poem had me lost in thought like no other.

3.5/5

[Gia CP]

this book doubled in size with the amount of notes i wrote for it. i feel like i'll have to revisit it in the future because there were some poems that i did not understand, maybe because my english isn't good enough yet. and then some of them i did understand but didn't care for (mostly the religious ones). these are the two reasons for a 3-star rating

still, a very enjoyable read. i definitely found some favorites in here

[James]

I love Emily Dickinson's poetry but it's a shame that this particular edition was heavily edited by Dickinson's niece leaving out important conventions of her poetry. Nonetheless I did enjoy reading some of her emotionally driven and imaginary poetry.

[Andrew Corsini]

Dickinson's first published volume of poetry comes with an incredible foreword, and while her poetry is certainly intense (Volcanoes are a recurring image), it lacked the sheer beauty of the foreword for me.

[Amy]

As a long-time fan of Emily Dickinson, it was a joy to revisit her work. Wonderful imagery throughout her poems.

I particularly loved the preface at the beginning. I felt it showed a wonderful, playful side of Emily, and not the stuffy recluse that history has painted her to be.

[julie]

ngl but this old ass english has my brain hurting so bad. not familiar with 1800s english so this was kind of eh for me and the language barrier actually made me feel dumb asf at times so i fear this was not written for me

[Ana]

I would have liked a bit less religion and more of Dickinson's wit, but this was still a good collection.

[Kimberly Torres]

Most of her writing doesn’t click with me, but I can appreciate her poems. Didn’t take me long to finish. I enjoyed the preface.

[carolina]

4.5

[Ana Sofia Monteiro]

Best poetry I've ever read.

[Margarida de Sousa (IcthusBookCorner)]

4.5

[Sadie Kitten]

will 100% come back to emily dickinson soon

[Marnie]

she’s got some solid ones in here

[juls]

❤️‍🩹

[Iga]

ok so my english sucks

[Bloodorange]

This may not be the most fortunate selection to start with, as so many now-famous poems are absent from it.

[Olatz Ocáriz]

Creo que si leyese más poesía podría haberlo apreciado más, tiene muy buenos momentos.

[Matt Ambs]

A posthumous collection of poetry from one of America's preeminent female poets. This work consists largely of meditations and experimental verse written on scraps of paper. However, "The Single Hound" is inundated with revelation, and also further exposes the immensely reclusive soul of Emily Dickinson.

[Jeff]

I'd give it 2.5 if I could. There were a few poems I really loved especially in the first two sections. The last couple sections kind of lost me. I dunno, I guess Emily Dickinson isn't exactly my thing, but I appreciate what she did here. Doesn't take all that long to read this book, so it's worth checking out at a library (which is what I did).

[Ellen]

If I could not tell how glad I was,
I should not be so glad,
But when I cannot make the force
Nor mould it into word,

I know it is a sign
That new dilemma be
From mathematics further off
Than from eternity.

(Undated)

[han]

lovely small poetry book! i can see why people say it has a lot of religious references- it does. however, this does not take from the poetry at all- and in my opinion you can gather the context and opinions of dickinson. another poetry book enjoyed- will be sure to read another of her works :)