This is my letter to the World
Fr519
Lesson guide by Tina Cane
“This is my letter to the World” (F519) is one of Emily Dickinson’s most widely known poems, and makes for a wonderful introduction to her work for students of all ages. Compact yet packed with meaning, it offers a fine example of how brevity and economy can effectively convey a complex, powerful statement. Dickinson’s “Letter” expresses a sense of dejection, isolation, and fear of being judged. Despite feeling vulnerable and rejected, the speaker shares her “message” with the world, transforming this brief declaration into an appeal for connection and reciprocity. Many young people will appreciate and relate to the sentiments expressed here, and any lesson would be enriched by a class discussion about inclusion, belonging, fears of rejection, or judgment.
LESSON OBJECTIVES
Engagement
– Connect to students’ own experiences of writing and receiving messages, both analog and digital.
– Connect themes raised by Dickinson’s poem to the intersection of the personal and political in poetry.
Content Knowledge
– Define epistolary poetry.
– Explore the relationship between letters and poems in Dickinson’s personal and literary life.
Process Knowledge
– Appreciate the poem’s compact tension, its use of punctuation and capitalization, and the way in which it employs metonymy by conflating letter-writing with the act of writing a poem.
– Learn by doing: reinforce an appreciation for the poem’s merits through writing original poetry.
Transfer Goals
– Recognize that genre can be fluid, that different kinds of writing are interconnected, and that poetry is a flexible form in which the rules of syntax can be bent.
– Develop an appreciation for poetry as an art form that is also visual and can be tactile.
This is my letter to the World
That never wrote to Me—
The simple News that Nature told—
With tender Majesty
Her Message is committed
To Hands I cannot see—
For love of Her—Sweet—countrymen—
Judge tenderly—of Me
Tina Cane was born in Hell’s Kitchen, NYC in 1969 and grew up in the city’s East and West Village. She attended the University of Vermont, the Sorbonne and completed her master’s degree in French Literature at the University of Paris X-Nanterre and Middlebury College.
She is the founder and director of Writers-in-the Schools, RI, for which she works as a visiting poet. Over the past twenty-five years, Tina has taught French, English, and creative writing in public and private schools throughout New York City and Rhode Island.
Her poems and translations have appeared in numerous publications, including American Poetry Review, Spinning Jenny, Poetry, The Literary Review, Tupelo Quarterly, The Common, Texas Review, and Poem-a-Day. Her work, The Fifth Thought, was the 2008 Other Painters Press chapbook winner.
Tina’s books include The Fifth Thought, Dear Elena: Letters for Elena Ferrante, Once More With Feeling, and Body of Work. Tina was the 2016 recipient for the Fellowship Merit Award in Poetry from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts. She currently serves as the Poet Laureate of Rhode Island where she lives with her husband and their three children. In 2020, Cane was named a poet laureate fellow with the Academyof American Poets. Tina is also the creator/curator of the distance reading series, Poetry is Bread, the editor of Poetry is Bread:The Anthology (Nirala Publications, March 2025).
Alma Presses Play, Tina’s debut verse novel for young adults readers, was released in September 2021 with Penguin/ Random House Books. Are You Nobody Too?, Cane’s most recent novel-in-verse for middle-grade readers, came out in September 2024.
Join us on Emily Dickinson’s lawn or virtually for a celebration of creativity and poetry! Our headlining poets, Victoria Chang and Samyak Shertok will read from their work and discuss their poetic practice and inspiration with moderator January Gill O’Neil. Books will be available for purchase with a signing to following the reading.
Jane Wong is the author of the memoir Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City (Tin House, 2023) and two poetry collections, How to Not Be Afraid of Everything and Overpour. She holds an MFA from the University of Iowa and a PhD from the University of Washington and is an associate professor at Western Washington University. Her work appears in The New York Times, Best American Poetry, POETRY, and McSweeney’s. A Pushcart Prize winner, she has received numerous fellowships and exhibits interdisciplinary art nationally.
Anastacia-Reneé (she/they) is a queer writer, educator, and interdisciplinary artist. She is the author of Side Notes from the Archivist (HarperCollins/Amistad), named a New York Public Library Best Book of 2023 and an American Library Association Notable Book of 2024, along with (v.), Forget It, and Here in the (Middle) of Nowhere. A former Seattle Civic Poet, TEDx speaker, and radio host, she has received the James W. Ray Distinguished Artist Award and fellowships from Cave Canem, Hedgebrook, VONA, and Ragdale.