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In her own words

This is my letter to the World

Emily Dickinson · 1830-1886

This is my letter to the WorldThat never wrote to Me –The simple News that Nature told –With tender Majesty
Her Message is committedTo Hands I cannot see –For love of Her – Sweet – Countrymen –Judge tenderly – of Me

See it in her own handHoughton Library, Harvard

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.