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In her own words

The Brain – is wider than the Sky

Emily Dickinson · 1830-1886

The Brain – is wider than the Sky –For – put them side by side –The One the Other will containWith ease – and You – beside –
The Brain is deeper than the Sea –For – hold them – Blue to Blue –The One the Other will absorb –As Sponges – Buckets – do –
The Brain is just the weight of God –For – Heft them – Pound for Pound –And they will differ – if they do –As Syllable from Sound –

See it in her own handAmherst College, Archives & Special Collections

The poems here are transcribed from Dickinson's own manuscripts, which are in the public domain. Her dashes, capital letters, and spellings are kept as she wrote them, so these read differently from the smoothed versions printed after her death. The manuscript images are reproduced courtesy of the libraries that hold them: the Boston Public Library (no known copyright restrictions), Amherst College Archives and Special Collections (free for non-commercial and educational use, with credit), and the Houghton Library at Harvard University, whose policy permits publishing images of its public-domain holdings. The modern dash-faithful scholarly editions remain under copyright and are not used here.