Lyric Poem · Life
When Memory is full
When Memory is full
Put on the perfect Lid —
This Morning's finest syllable
Presumptuous Evening said —
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“When Memory is full” by Emily Dickinson — quilloak.com/poems/when-memory-is-full
Quick facts
- Poem
- When Memory is full
- Poet
- Emily Dickinson
- Length
- 4 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
- 4 lines · one 4-line stanza
- Line length
- Consistent with short metre. Two short lines, one longer, one short (6.6.8.6) — the short hymn stanza.
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 committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- Emily Dickinson1830–1886
- Source record
- PoetryDBWhen Memory is full 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 a52859da39304a50…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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