Opening Lines of Emily Dickinson Poems Not to Be Used as Pickup Lines

by Lizzy Straus

144 — I never hear the word “Escape”

185 — A wife at daybreak I shall be

225 — I’m wife, I’ve finished that

253 — I’ve nothing else to bring, you know

260 — I’m nobody! Who are you?

295 — Father — I bring thee not myself

303 — Alone I cannot be

311 — I know some lonely houses off the road

315 — To die — takes just a little while –

332 — Doubt me! My dim companion!

336 — Before I got my eye put out

339 — I like a look of agony

341 — ’Tis so appalling, it exhilarates

344 — ’Twas just this time, last year, I died.

372 — After great pain, a formal feeling comes

407 — One need not be a chamber to be haunted

456 — A prison gets to be a friend

524 — It feels a shame to be alive

541 — The test of love is death

591 — I heard a fly buzz when I died

614 — Twas warm at first like us

890 — A coffin is a small domain

937 — Not all die early dying young

966 — A death blow is a life blow to some

1050 — I am afraid to own a body

1263 — Tell all the truth but tell it slant

1335 — Floss won’t save you from an abyss

1346 — I send you a decrepit flower

1470 — Death is the supple suitor

1608 — Candor — my tepid friend

1649 — Back from the cordial grave I drag thee

1774 — A face devoid of love or grace

Previously: How to Grow a Husband Tree

Lizzy Straus is an MFA student at Columbia University. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.