A great Hope fell
You heard no noise
The Ruin was within
Oh cunning wreck that told no tale
And let no Witness in
The mind was built for mighty Freight
For dread occasion planned
How often foundering at Sea
Ostensibly, on Land
A not admitting of the wound
Until it grew so wide
That all my Life had entered it
And there were troughs beside
A closing of the simple lid
That opened to the sun
Until the tender Carpenter
Perpetual nail it down —
“#1123,” circa 1868, The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
Open Me Carefully and a new play Tell It Slant suggest one of the deeper wounds Emily Dickinson endured may have been Susan Gilbert, a woman she loved, marrying her brother Austin Dickinson. Austin and Susan eventually moved in to the house next door, and Emily and Susan remained close; their surviving correspondence spans over 35 years.
Poems by Emily Dickinson were also featured for Poem-a-Day April 29, 2008 and Poem-a-Day April 25, 2009.