Lyric Poem · Love

Tie the Strings to my Life, My Lord

by Emily Dickinson

Reading room

1Tie the Strings to my Life, My Lord,

2Then, I am ready to go!

3Just a look at the Horses —

4Rapid! That will do!

5Put me in on the firmest side —

6So I shall never fall —

7For we must ride to the Judgment —

8And it's partly, down Hill —

9But never I mind the steeper —

10And never I mind the Sea —

11Held fast in Everlasting Race —

12By my own Choice, and Thee —

13Goodbye to the Life I used to live —

14And the World I used to know —

15And kiss the Hills, for me, just once —

16Then — I am ready to go!

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“Tie the Strings to my Life, My Lord” by Emily Dickinson — quilloak.com/poems/tie-the-strings-to-my-life-my-lord

Quick facts

Poem: Tie the Strings to my Life, My Lord
Poet: Emily Dickinson
Length: 16 lines
Form: Lyric Poem
Themes: Love, 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: 16 lines · 4 quatrains
Line length: Lines run 6-8 syllables (median 7). No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.

The poem’s silhouette — approximate syllables per line, measured from the text above. Even bars mean a measured line; ragged bars mean the poem sets its own widths.

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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: PoetryDBTie the Strings to my Life, My Lord 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 d82fb70692982d67…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Lyric Poem Love Nature

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