Lyric Poem · Autumn
How happy I was if I could forget
How happy I was if I could forget
To remember how sad I am
Would be an easy adversity
But the recollecting of Bloom
Keeps making November difficult
Till I who was almost bold
Lose my way like a little Child
And perish of the cold.
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“How happy I was if I could forget” by Emily Dickinson — quilloak.com/poems/how-happy-i-was-if-i-could-forget
Quick facts
- Poem
- How happy I was if I could forget
- Poet
- Emily Dickinson
- Length
- 8 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem, Short Poems
- Themes
- Autumn, Nature, Childhood, 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
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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
- PoetryDBHow happy I was if I could forget 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 84dc46ac5a36aa9c…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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