“Starter” Poems

Poems to Use in the Classroom

The following poems have been successfully used with a variety of age levels: 

  • “I heard a Fly buzz” Fr591
  • “It was a given to me by the Gods” Fr455
  • “There’s a certain Slant of Light” Fr320
  • “I’m Nobody” Fr260
  • “Blazing in Gold and Quenching in Purple” Fr321
  • “Hope is the things with feathers” Fr321
  • “The Moon was but a Chin of Gold” Fr735
  • “I like to see it lap the Miles” Fr383
  • “Bee! I’m expecting you!” Fr983
  • “A narrow Fellow in the Grass” Fr1096
  • “The Brain is wider than the Sky” Fr598
  • “The Robin’s my Criterion for Tune” Fr256

PLEASE NOTE: Dickinson titled few of her poems, so they are generally referred to by first line. The number following each first line above refers to the most recent edition of Dickinson’s work, The Poems of Emily Dickinson, ed. by R. W. Franklin (Harvard University Press, 1998). It is available in a reading edition published in 1999. Dickinson’s poems do remain under copyright. Many versions found on the Internet are taken from earlier versions of her work that are heavily edited. A source that does include some Dickinson texts taken from the Franklin edition can be found at http://poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/155.