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In her own words

Wild nights – Wild nights!

Emily Dickinson · 1830-1886

Wild nights – Wild nights!Were I with theeWild nights should beOur luxury!
Futile – the winds –To a Heart in port –Done with the Compass –Done with the Chart –!
Rowing in Eden –Ah! the Sea!Might I but moor –Tonight –In thee!

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.