What Emily Dickenson poem is this line from?
Asked by
occ (
4179)
November 27th, 2007
I came across this quote attributed to Emily Dickenson: “To multiply the harbors does not reduce the sea.” Does anyone know what poem it’s from? I can’t find it anywhere.
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7 Answers
That quotation is from a letter Dickinson wrote to Perez Cowan. You can find the letter here or by searching “multiply the harbors” on books.google.com (if you want to find a more precise attribution for the quotation).
She may have also used the line in a poem. If so, I can’t find it.
Unrelated side note: You can sing any of Dickenson’s poems to The Yellow Rose of Texas
@andrew; that made my day, in spite of flu.
Her poems can also be sung to the Gilligan’s Island theme song:
“Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip”
“Because I could not stop for death, he kindly stopped for me”
See?
@needaclue: So can that great Cavalier poem “To the virgins…”
Gather ye roses, while ye may
Old time is still a-flyin’
And this same flower which blooms today
Tomorrow will be dyin’ (Tomorrow will be dyin’!)
(Paraphrased from the annals of my memory)
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