by EMILY DICKINSON
Third Series
Edited by
MABEL LOOMIS TODD
It's all I have to bring to-day, This, and my heart beside, This, and my heart, and all the fields, And all the meadows wide. Be sure you count, should I forget, -- Some one the sum could tell, -- This, and my heart, and all the bees Which in the clover dwell.
PREFACE.
The intellectual activity of Emily Dickinson was so great thata large and characteristic choice is still possible among herliterary material, and this third volume of her verses is putforth in response to the repeated wish of the admirers of herpeculiar genius. Much of Emily Dickinson's prose was rhythmic,--even rhymed, though frequently not set apart in lines.
Also many verses, written as such, were sent to friends inletters; these were published in 1894, in the volumes of herLetters. It has not been necessary, however, to include them inthis Series, and all have been omitted, except three or fourexceptionally strong ones, as "A Book," and "With Flowers."
There is internal evidence that many of the poems were simplyspontaneous flashes of insight, apparently unrelated to outwardcircumstance. Others, however, had an obvious personal origin;for example, the verses "I had a Guinea golden," which seem tohave been sent to some friend travelling in Europe, as a daintyreminder of letter-writing delinquencies. The surroundings inwhich any of Emily Dickinson's verses are known to have beenwritten usually serve to explain them clearly; but in general thepresent volume is full of thoughts needing no interpretation tothose who apprehend this scintillating spirit.
M. L. T.
AMHERST, October, 1896.