Emily Dickinson poetry

Question 1

What did Dickinson ask in her letter to Mr. Higginson?

Answer 1

‘if my Verse is alive? The Mind is so near itself - it cannot see, distinctly’

Question 2

What did Emily Dickinson alternately claim her ‘Business’ was?

Answer 2

‘My Business is Circumference’

OR, ‘my Business is to Love…my Business is to Sing’

Question 3

202 - “Faith is…”

Answer 3

Faith is a fine invention
For Gentlemen who see!
But Microscopes are prudent
In an Emergency!

Question 4

335 - ‘and yet, it tasted…’

Answer 4

And yet, it tasted, like them all
The Figures I have seen
Set orderly for Burial,
Reminded me - of mine -

As if my life were shaven,
And fitted to a frame,
And could not breathe without a key…

Question 5

340 - ‘I felt a funeral, in my Brain…’

Answer 5

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,
And Mourners to and fro,
Kept treading - treading - till it seemed
That Sense was breaking through -

And when they were all seated,
A Service, like a Drum,
Kept beating - beating - till i thought
My mind was going numb -

As all the Heavens were a Bell,
And Being, just an Ear,
And I, but Silence, some strange Race,
Wrecked, solitary, here -

And then a Plank in Reason, broke,
And I dropped down, and down -
And hit a World, at every plunge,
And Finished knowing, then -

Question 6

372 - After Great Pain…

Answer 6

After great pain, a formal feeling comes -
The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs -
…
This is the Hour of Lead -
Remembered, if outlived,
As Freezing persons, recollect the Snow -
First - Chill - then, Stupour - then the letting go -

Question 7

373 - This World is not Conclusion….

Answer 7

This World is not Conclusion. 
A Species stands beyond -
Invisible, as Music,
But positive, as Sound -
...
Narcotics cannot still the Tooth
That nibbles at the Soul -

Question 8

479 - Becuase I could not stop for Death

Answer 8

Because I could not stop for Death –
He kindly stopped for me –
The Carriage held but just Ourselves –
And Immortality.

Question 9

591 - I heard a Fly buzz - when I died…

Answer 9

I heard a Fly buzz - when I died -
…
I willed my Keepsakes - Signed away
What portion of me be
Assignable - and then it was
There interposed a Fly -
With Blue - uncertain - stumbling Buzz -
Between the light - and me -
And then the Windows failed - and then
I could not see to see -