Dickinson on Love

Emily Dickinson’s poems are characterized by an unmatched emotional and intellectual intensity that is cast into direct and accessible language of unusual brevity and grace. Some of her poems run for only a few lines but they survey the entire cosmos of human experience, including life and death, solitude and society, morality and nature. Many of her 1,775 poems are devoted to love, which Dickinson expressed from the position of the lover, the beloved, and the poet who marvels how love transports and transforms us. This selection gathers Dickinson’s thrillingly unique poetry about the central animating experience of our lives. Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) was born in Amherst, Massachusetts. After an unusually thorough education for a woman of her time, she began writing poems that drew on her wide knowledge of literature, scripture, and the political discourse of her day. Dickinson fell in love several times during her life but never married, preferring instead to live an increasingly secluded life. She entrusted a number of poems to a well-known editor but published only one poem under her name during her lifetime. With the posthumous publication of her work she was soon recognized as one of the world’s great poets. Ulrich Baer holds a BA from Harvard and a PhD from Yale. He is University Professor at New York University, where he teaches literature and photography. He has been awarded Guggenheim, Getty, and Alexander von Humboldt fellowships. A widely recognized expert on poetry and translator, among his books are Rainer Maria Rilke’s The Dark Letters on Loss, Grief, and Transformation, Letters on Life, and Letters to a Young Poet. Other books include Spectral Evidence, What Snowflakes Get Right, and in the Contemplations Nietzsche on Love and Rilke on Love . He lives in New York City.