Emily Dickinson

"This is my letter to the world"

We present actress Julie Harris reading from the poems and letters of Emily Dickinson. Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) lived a reclusive life in Amherst, Massachusetts; she never married. Although she wrote nearly 2,000 poems, only two of them were published during her lifetime.

This recording, made in 1961, includes "This is my letter to the world," "The soul selects her own society," "Pain has an element of blank," "Hope is the thing with feathers," "I'm nobody bgcolor="#FFFFFF"! Who are you?", a letter to T. W. Higginson from April 15, 1862, "I'll tell you how the sun rose," "I cautious scanned my little life," "If you were coming in the fall," "My river runs to thee," and a letter to T.W. Higginson from April 25, 1862.

Content: Emily Dickinson, Part 2

Actress Julie Harris reads the works of Emily Dickinson. The poems and letters work together to reveal details of Dickinson's physically circumscribed but emotionally complex life. One of three children of a lawyer in Amherst, Massachusetts, Dickinson dressed entirely in white and rarely agreed to meet visitors.

This 1961 recording includes a letter to John L. Graves from late April of 1856, the poems "I died for beauty, but was scarce," "There came a wind like a bugle," "Safe in their alabaster chambers," "I years had been from home," "Love is anterior to life," a letter to Otis P. Lord from December 3, 1882, "I cannot live with you," and "My life closed twice before its close." These selections were originally presented as the Tony Award- winning show "The Belle of Amherst."

Emily Dickinson, Part 3

British actress Julie Harris reads the works of American poet Emily Dickinson. These readings, recorded in 1960, were originally presented on the stage as "The Belle of Amherst, which won a Tony award.

This selection includes the poems "Before I got my eye put out," "To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee," "A narrow fellow in the grass," a letter from Dickinson to Sally Jenkins in December of 1880, "A bird came down the walk," "What soft, cherubic creatures," "I taste a liquor never brewed," "Beside the autumn poets sing," "The heart asks pleasure first," "The sky is low, the clouds are mean," and "There's a certain slant of light."

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