< Return to Emily Dickinson Poems
XL. She Sweeps With Many-Colored Brooms
She sweeps with many-colored brooms,
And leaves the shreds behind;
Oh, housewife in the evening west,
Come back, and dust the pond!
You dropped a purple ravelling in,
You dropped an amber thread;
And now you ‘ve littered all the East
With duds of emerald!
And still she plies her spotted brooms,
And still the aprons fly,
Till brooms fade softly into stars —
And then I come away.
-Emily Dickinson
Enjoy Artistic Representations of “She Sweeps With Many-Colored Brooms” by Emily Dickinson
Woman with a Broom by Vincent van Gogh, 1885.
Landscape at Twilight by Vincent van Gogh, 1890.
Listen to this Reading of “She Sweeps With Many-Colored Brooms”
Listen to this Musical Interpretation of “She Sweeps With Many-Colored Brooms” by Emily Dickinson
About Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson estate in Amherst Massachusetts
Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst, MA, in 1830, the daughter of state and federal politician Edward Dickinson. A prolific poet, Dickinson was known to draft poems on the backs of envelopes and chocolate wrappers. Nearly 1800 of her poems were discovered by her family following her death, many in 40 handbound volumes she had sewn together, written in her own hand with her famously unorthodox punctuation.
Emily Dickinson & Susan Gilbert
The enigmatic poet is remembered as a recluse, rarely leaving the Dickinson estate. While she did receive callers at her home, conversations were often held from opposite sides of a closed door.
She lived with her sister, Lavinia, while her brother Austin and his wife, Susan Gilbert, lived down a narrow path on the property. Her writing reflects profound loneliness as well as a deep capacity for love and affection, much of which is believed to have been shared with Gilbert.
Her first collection of poems, Poems by Emily Dickinson, was published four years after her death, with Poems: Second Series and Poems: Third Series following in the next several years.
“Called Back”
Like Walt Whitman (who she reportedly never read), she is considered one of the most influential poets in the emergence of a distinctly American poetic voice.
She was born on December 10, 1830, and today visitors to Emily Dickinson’s grave can witness a lasting image of her perspective on life. The etching on her stone marking the date of her death—May 15, 1886—bears the words “Called Back.”
< Return to Emily Dickinson Poems
Get Every Day Poems, free…