A newly discovered poem by Emily Dickinson? Check this out:
As a member of the Emily Dickinson International Society (EDIS), I receive The Emily Dickinson Journal twice per year. In volume XXXIV No. 1, the first for 2025, there is an interesting article by editor Margaret Dakin entitled “Cushing-Tuckerman-Esty Family Letters Concerning Emily Dickinson” in which she discussed letters of members from three families of Amherst where they mentioned their neighbors, the Dickinsons – especially Emily Dickinson.
For example, in an April 22, 1873 letter from Martha “Mattie” A. Cushing Esty to Eliza Tuckerman, when the Tuckermans were touring Europe and Mattie was taking care of their home, Mattie said this to “My dear Sister”:
I received a box of lovely flowers the other day from Miss Emily Dickinson, with a few lines, which I succeeded in making out, with the exception of one word, after a great effort. The lines were as follows:
Without our leave the mornings rise,
The birds presumptuous (here comes doubtful word of three letters)
Let their divine temerity,
Extenuate my own.
We tried all sorts of words, but could find nothing resembling the obscure one, that would make any sense. Her handwriting is very peculiar.
This poem is not in any of the “complete” poem editions of Dickinson (i.e., Johnson, Franklin, Miller); nor is it in Cristanne Miller’s edition of “The Letters of Emily Dickinson” – as it wasn’t in a letter written by Emily Dickinson.
Read more about Mattie Esty’s letter, this previously unknown poem, and what word that obscure word might be, HERE.
As a member of the Emily Dickinson International Society (EDIS), I receive The Emily Dickinson Journal twice per year. In volume XXXIV No. 1, the first for 2025, there is an interesting article by editor Margaret Dakin entitled “Cushing-Tuckerman-Esty Family Letters Concerning Emily Dickinson” in which she discussed letters of members from three families of Amherst where they mentioned their neighbors, the Dickinsons – especially Emily Dickinson.
For example, in an April 22, 1873 letter from Martha “Mattie” A. Cushing Esty to Eliza Tuckerman, when the Tuckermans were touring Europe and Mattie was taking care of their home, Mattie said this to “My dear Sister”:
I received a box of lovely flowers the other day from Miss Emily Dickinson, with a few lines, which I succeeded in making out, with the exception of one word, after a great effort. The lines were as follows:
Without our leave the mornings rise,
The birds presumptuous (here comes doubtful word of three letters)
Let their divine temerity,
Extenuate my own.
We tried all sorts of words, but could find nothing resembling the obscure one, that would make any sense. Her handwriting is very peculiar.
This poem is not in any of the “complete” poem editions of Dickinson (i.e., Johnson, Franklin, Miller); nor is it in Cristanne Miller’s edition of “The Letters of Emily Dickinson” – as it wasn’t in a letter written by Emily Dickinson.
Read more about Mattie Esty’s letter, this previously unknown poem, and what word that obscure word might be, HERE.
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