The Only Ghost I Ever Saw by Emily Dickinson (Poem)

“The Only Ghost I Ever Saw” was not published during Dickinson’s lifestyle. It did not appear in print until 1891, when it was included in Poems: Second Series. “The Only Ghost I Ever Saw” has since appeared in a few additional anthologies including A Gathering of Ghosts (1970) and Why Am I Grown So Cold?: Poems of the Unknowable (1982).

 

About Emily Dickinson

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. Although she is now regarded as an important figure in Amercian poetry, her creative efforts were largely unknown during her lifetime. A prolific writer, she penned close to 1,800 poems. She only placed 10 of them with magazines. Unique for her era, these few published poems did not fit the poetic rules in place at the time and were often severely edited before publication.

Many of Dickinson’s poems, deal with death, spirituality, and immortality. Although some of her family and friends may have been aware of Dickinson’s writing endeavors, her poetry may have been somewhat of a guilty secret. After her Death, Dickinson’s sister, Lavina, discovered the hoard of poems, making them public. Sadly, the first Emily Dickson poetry collection was published in 1890—four years after her death.

 

The Only Ghost I Ever Saw

by Emily Dickinson

The only ghost I ever saw
Was dressed in mechlin, —so;
He wore no sandal on his foot,
And stepped like flakes of snow.
His gait was soundless, like the bird,
But rapid, like the roe;
His fashions quaint, mosaic,
Or, haply, mistletoe.

His conversation seldom,
His laughter like the breeze
That dies away in dimples
Among the pensive trees.
Our interview was transient, —
Of me, himself was shy;
And God forbid I look behind
Since that appalling day!

~~~