Emily Dickinson
“I dwell in Possibility —”
manuscript, c. 1862
Documented source
Source
Autograph manuscriptAn untitled poem, known only by its first line
Date
c. 1862
Wording
Matches Dickinson’s manuscriptMinor editorial variants exist in later printings
Every quote here is traced to a documented source. How we verify →
About this line
Dickinson wrote this poem around 1862 and never gave it a title — the first line became the whole argument. She spent most of her life in near-seclusion in Amherst, yet built something larger to live inside: Possibility itself. In the poem she sets Possibility — poetry, imagination, the life of the mind — against Prose: the ordinary, the expected, the room you’re already standing in.
Why we carry this line
It reads like permission. Keep the door open, don’t close things down. I need that reminder; figured I’m not the only one.
