Poems by Emily Dickinson, Three Series, Complete

The verses of Emily Dickinson belong emphatically to what Emerson long since called "the Poetry of the Portfolio,"--something produced absolutely without the thought of publication, and solely by way of expression of the writer's own mind. Such verse must inevitably forfeit whatever advantage lies in the discipline of public criticism and the enforced conformity to accepted ways. On the other hand, it may often gain something through the habit of freedom and the unconventional utterance of daring thoughts. In the case of the present author, there was absolutely no choice in the matter; she must write thus, or not at all. 

Dickinson published only 11 poems in her lifetime. It was only after her death in 1886, that her sister discovered a locked box containing 1,775 of her manuscript poems. Mable Todd—a friend of Dickinson's, edited and published the three series. A disagreement between the Dickinson and Todd families led to the manuscripts being split, preventing the publication of a comprehensive edition of Dickinson's poetry for nearly 70 years.