Lyric Poem · Love

From all the Jails the Boys and Girls

by Emily Dickinson

Ecstatically leap —

Beloved only Afternoon

That Prison doesn't keep

They storm the Earth and stun the Air,

A Mob of solid Bliss —

Alas — that Frowns should lie in wait

For such a Foe as this —

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“From all the Jails the Boys and Girls” by Emily Dickinson — quilloak.com/poems/from-all-the-jails-the-boys-and-girls

Quick facts

Poem: From all the Jails the Boys and Girls
Poet: Emily Dickinson
Length: 8 lines
Form: Lyric Poem, Short Poems
Themes: Love, Sad, Short

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: 8 lines · 2 quatrains
End rhyme: ABCB in every stanza — ballad rhyme — only lines 2 and 4 chime.
Line length: Lines run 5-8 syllables (median 7). No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.

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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: PoetryDBFrom all the Jails the Boys and Girls 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 3afdc719a437f667…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Lyric Poem Short Poems Love Sad Short

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