Lyric Poem · Love
Going to Him! Happy letter!
1Going to Him! Happy letter!
2Tell Him —
3Tell Him the page I didn't write —
4Tell Him — I only said the Syntax —
5And left the Verb and the pronoun out —
6Tell Him just how the fingers hurried —
7Then — how they waded — slow — slow —
8And then you wished you had eyes in your pages —
9So you could see what moved them so —
10Tell Him — it wasn't a Practised Writer —
11You guessed — from the way the sentence toiled —
12You could hear the Bodice tug, behind you —
13As if it held but the might of a child —
14You almost pitied it — you — it worked so —
15Tell Him — no — you may quibble there —
16For it would split His Heart, to know it —
17And then you and I, were silenter.
18Tell Him — Night finished — before we finished —
19And the Old Clock kept neighing "Day"!
20And you — got sleepy — and begged to be ended —
21What could it hinder so — to say?
22Tell Him — just how she sealed you — Cautious!
23But — if He ask where you are hid
24Until tomorrow — Happy letter!
25Gesture Coquette — and shake your Head!
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“Going to Him! Happy letter!” by Emily Dickinson — quilloak.com/poems/going-to-him-happy-letter
Quick facts
- Poem
- Going to Him! Happy letter!
- Poet
- Emily Dickinson
- Length
- 25 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Love, Childhood
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
- 25 lines · 3 stanzas of 8–9 lines
- End rhyme
- No regular perfect end rhyme. The poem may still be using slant rhyme, assonance, or internal echo, which this check does not score.
- Line length
- Lines run 7-10 syllables (median 9). 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
- PoetryDBGoing to Him! Happy letter! 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 3d9146b0c7bf95db…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.