Lyric Poem · Peace

Going to Heaven!

by Emily Dickinson

Reading room

1Going to Heaven!

2I don't know when —

3Pray do not ask me how!

4Indeed I'm too astonished

5To think of answering you!

6Going to Heaven!

7How dim it sounds!

8And yet it will be done

9As sure as flocks go home at night

10Unto the Shepherd's arm!

11Perhaps you're going too!

12Who knows?

13If you should get there first

14Save just a little space for me

15Close to the two I lost —

16The smallest "Robe" will fit me

17And just a bit of "Crown" —

18For you know we do not mind our dress

19When we are going home —

20I'm glad I don't believe it

21For it would stop my breath —

22And I'd like to look a little more

23At such a curious Earth!

24I'm glad they did believe it

25Whom I have never found

26Since the might Autumn afternoon

27I left them in the ground.

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“Going to Heaven!” by Emily Dickinson — quilloak.com/poems/going-to-heaven

Quick facts

Poem: Going to Heaven!
Poet: Emily Dickinson
Length: 27 lines
Form: Lyric Poem
Themes: Peace, Autumn, Nature

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: 27 lines · 3 stanzas of 8–10 lines
Refrain: “Going to Heaven!”Repeated lines act as the poem's hinge or drumbeat.

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Author record: Emily Dickinson1830–1886
Source record: PoetryDBGoing to Heaven! 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 1d5153f56ea9f522…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Lyric Poem Peace Autumn Nature

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