Ghosts
One need not be a chamber to be haunted,One need not be a house;The brain has corridors surpassingMaterial place.
Far safer, of a midnight meetingExternal ghost,Than an interior confrontingThat whiter host.
Far safer through an Abbey gallop,The stones achase,Than, moonless, one's own self encounterIn lonesome place.
Ourself, behind ourself concealed,Should startle most;Assassin, hid in our apartment,Be horror's least.
The prudent carries a revolver,He bolts the door,O'erlooking a superior spectreMore near.
Words in this poem
- haunted a.
- Inhabited by, or subject to the visits of, apparitions; frequented by a ghost.
- ghost n.
- The spirit; the soul of man. [OE. gast, gost, soul, spirit, AS. gast breath, spirit, soul; akin to OS. g spirit, soul, D. geest, G. geist, and prob. to E. gaze, ghastly.]
- confronting n.
- dealing with (a person or problem) directly; taking the bull by the horns.
- moonless a.
- Being without a moon or moonlight.
- lonesome a.
- Secluded from society; not frequented by human beings; solitary.
- spectre n.
- Something preternaturally visible; an apparition; a ghost; a phantom. [F. spectre, fr. L. spectrum an appearance, image, specter, fr. specere to look. See Spy, and cf. Spectrum.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Ghosts is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems by Emily Dickinson, Three Series, Complete, Project Gutenberg ebook #12242; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Emily Dickinson, Ghosts, in Poems (1890–1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12242, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dickinson-poems/ghosts.html, id L03722.
Form and metre
Ghosts is 20 lines in 5 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.5 syllables. 8 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 2 -A-A meeting · ghostA · confronting · hostA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| One need not be a chamber to be haunted, | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| One need not be a house; | 6 | ······ |
| The brain has corridors surpassing | 9 | ···/˘˘˘/˘ |
| Material place. | 5 | ˘/˘˘· |
| Far safer, of a midnight meeting | 9 | ·/˘··/·/˘ |
| External ghost, | 4 | ˘/˘· |
| Than an interior confronting | 9 | ··˘/˘˘˘/˘ |
| That whiter host. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Far safer through an Abbey gallop, | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| The stones achase, | 4 | ···· |
| Than, moonless, one's own self encounter | 9 | ·/˘···˘/˘ |
| In lonesome place. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Ourself, behind ourself concealed, | 10 | ˘˘/··˘˘/˘/ |
| Should startle most; | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Assassin, hid in our apartment, | 10 | ˘/˘··/˘˘/˘ |
| Be horror's least. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| The prudent carries a revolver, | 9 | ·/˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| He bolts the door, | 4 | ···· |
| O'erlooking a superior spectre | 10 | ····˘/˘˘/˘ |
| More near. | 2 | ·· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.