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Named source · 1896

A Well — Emily Dickinson Quotes by Emily Dickinson: Context & Meanings

1 quotation linked to A Well — Emily Dickinson by or associated with Emily Dickinson, with source notes, explanations and related topics.

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Poem in the 1896 Third Series

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Nature, wells, water, grass, observation, mystery, curiosity and the limits of explanation.

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“But nature is a stranger yet; The ones that cite her most Have never passed her haunted house, Nor simplified her ghost.”

Even close observers do not fully explain nature in this ending; familiarity with natural objects leaves room for strangeness, uncertainty and intellectual humility.

Source note: “A Well,” Poems: Third Series (1896), Project Gutenberg #12242. The ghost and haunted-house language is metaphorical, emphasizing nature's unresolved mystery.