Lyric Poem · Nature

They shut me up in Prose

by Emily Dickinson

They shut me up in Prose —

As when a little Girl

They put me in the Closet —

Because they liked me "still" —

Still! Could themself have peeped —

And seen my Brain — go round —

They might as wise have lodged a Bird

For Treason — in the Pound —

Himself has but to will

And easy as a Star

Abolish his Captivity —

And laugh — No more have I —

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“They shut me up in Prose” by Emily Dickinson — quilloak.com/poems/they-shut-me-up-in-prose

Quick facts

Poem: They shut me up in Prose
Poet: Emily Dickinson
Length: 12 lines
Form: Lyric Poem
Themes: 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: 12 lines · 3 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: PoetryDBThey shut me up in Prose 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 bd41e7a20f6cf76d…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Lyric Poem Nature

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