Lyric Poem · Life
The Brain — is wider than the Sky
by Emily Dickinson · 1896
The brain is wider than the sky,
For, put them side by side,
The one the other will include
With ease, and you beside.
The brain is deeper than the sea,
For, hold them, blue to blue,
The one the other will absorb,
As sponges, buckets do.
The brain is just the weight of God,
For, lift them, pound for pound,
And they will differ, if they do,
As syllable from sound.
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“The Brain — is wider than the Sky” by Emily Dickinson — quilloak.com/poems/the-brain-is-wider-than-the-sky
Quick facts
- Poem
- The Brain — is wider than the Sky
- Poet
- Emily Dickinson
- Published
- 1896
- Length
- 12 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem, Short Poems
- Themes
- Life, Dreams & Sleep, 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
- 12 lines · 3 quatrains
- End rhyme
- ABCB in every stanza — ballad rhyme — only lines 2 and 4 chime.
- Line length
- Lines run 6-8 syllables (median 8), consistent with tetrameter. No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
Want the rules this form is measured against? Read what makes a lyric poem, or run your own draft through the form checker to see the same measurements on your lines. How we measure · Report a mistake
Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the cited edition and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- Emily Dickinson1830–1886
- Source record
- WikisourceThe Brain — is wider than the Sky by emily-dickinson, Wikisource transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- 1896
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 c2419cdcde2f912d…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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