Lyric Poem · Life
To lose one's faith—surpass
To lose one's faith — surpass
The loss of an Estate —
Because Estates can be
Replenished — faith cannot —
Inherited with Life —
Belief — but once — can be —
Annihilate a single clause —
And Being's — Beggary —
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“To lose one's faith—surpass” by Emily Dickinson — quilloak.com/poems/to-lose-ones-faith-surpass
Quick facts
- Poem
- To lose one's faith—surpass
- Poet
- Emily Dickinson
- Length
- 8 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem, Short Poems
- Themes
- Life, 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
- 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
- PoetryDBTo lose one's faith—surpass 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 2bbeb73679c5b743…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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