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Lyric Poem · Death & Loss

Dying! Dying in the night!

by Emily Dickinson

1Dying! Dying in the night!

2Won't somebody bring the light

3So I can see which way to go

4Into the everlasting snow?

5And "Jesus"! Where is Jesus gone?

6They said that Jesus — always came —

7Perhaps he doesn't know the House —

8This way, Jesus, Let him pass!

9Somebody run to the great gate

10And see if Dollie's coming! Wait!

11I hear her feet upon the stair!

12Death won't hurt — now Dollie's here!

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Quick facts

Poem
Dying! Dying in the night!
Poet
Emily Dickinson
Length
12 lines
Form
Lyric Poem
Themes
Death & Loss, Nature, Winter

Craft notes

How this poem works

Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.

Shape
12 lines · 3 quatrains
Line length
Lines run 7-8 syllables (median 8), consistent with tetrameter. No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
The poem’s silhouette — approximate syllables per line, measured from the text above. Even bars mean a measured line; ragged bars mean the poem sets its own widths.

Want the rules this form is measured against? Read what makes a lyric poem, or run your own draft through the form checker to see the same measurements on your lines. How we measure · Report a mistake

Text, source & rights

A traceable edition

Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.

Author record
Emily Dickinson1830–1886
Source record
PoetryDBDying! Dying in the night! by emily-dickinson, PoetryDB transcription
Display decision
Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record
Not recorded in the imported source
Text fingerprint
SHA-256 5fbb4193067e2bd0
Editorial handling
Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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