Emily Dickinson and the summer sky

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) was one of the great American poets of the nineteenth century. She lived a quiet, very private life, and almost all of her 1,789 poems were published only after her death.

Her poems are easy to recognise: unusual capital letters, many dashes, surprising images, and a short, lyric style.

In her poem 'Trees' she describes a summer day. The trees swing like tassels, and a tune seems to rise from tiny creatures, like distant psalteries (old stringed instruments) of summer.

The music charms the ear but never satisfies it: it is most remote (far away) just when it is most lovely.

The sun shines whole, then half, then is hidden. It seems to act like a lord who could choose to stay in his estates of cloud, but who, on a whim, lets the orchards grow.