Lyric Poem · Nature
I Years had been from Home
1I Years had been from Home
2And now before the Door
3I dared not enter, lest a Face
4I never saw before
5Stare solid into mine
6And ask my Business there —
7"My Business but a Life I left
8Was such remaining there?"
9I leaned upon the Awe —
10I lingered with Before —
11The Second like an Ocean rolled
12And broke against my ear —
13I laughed a crumbling Laugh
14That I could fear a Door
15Who Consternation compassed
16And never winced before.
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“I Years had been from Home” by Emily Dickinson — quilloak.com/poems/i-years-had-been-from-home
Quick facts
- Poem
- I Years had been from Home
- Poet
- Emily Dickinson
- Length
- 24 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Nature, Spring
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
- 24 lines · 6 quatrains
- Line length
- Mostly 6-syllable lines (trimeter length).
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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
- PoetryDBI Years had been from Home 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 2df6e74ec8bf8b77…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.