More than meets the eye.

I used to think poetry had to be ornate and wordy, and for this reason, I was not particularly impressed with the poetry of Emily Dickinson. It doesn't take much talent to write down a few simple lines with obvious rhymes, right? 

Now that I am older and very slightly wiser, I see the genius behind Emily Dickinson's work. Her ability to pack a bushel of expression into an ounce of poetry is an almost singular talent. Emily Dickinson is the poet that can make a mere four lines arrest your thoughts for an entire afternoon. Her poems mainly deal with love, death, nature, and eternity.

Here is a sample of her poetry:

I never saw a moor

I never saw the sea

Yet I know how the heather looks

And what a wave must be.

I never spoke with God

Nor visited in heaven

Yet certain am I of the spot 

As if the chart were given.

Photo courtesy of www.PDPhoto.org