Dickinson as Tweets

Emily Dickinson wrote 1,789 poems, published ten of them, and spent most of her adult life in her bedroom in Amherst, Massachusetts. If you described this behavior to anyone under thirty-five without naming her, they would say: “So she was a shitposter who never went viral in her own lifetime.” And they would be exactly right. Dickinson was producing avant-garde content for an audience that did not exist yet, distributing it through a private network (letters to friends), and carefully declining every opportunity to go mainstream. She had a literary mentor with a massive platform – Thomas Wentworth Higginson, editor of The Atlantic Monthly – and she used him not as a launchpad but as a sounding board she could safely ignore. She was shitposting into the void on purpose. The void eventually checked its notifications.

What follows is a reconstruction of what Emily Dickinson’s timeline would have looked like if she had been posting on Twitter/X in the 1860s. The poems are real. The engagement metrics are invented but calibrated: her weirdest, darkest, most structurally radical poems get the highest engagement, because that is how the internet works. Her literary mentor does not understand a single one of them. Walt Whitman tries to big-dog her in the replies. It does not go well for Walt.

@emilydickinson Emily D. | Amherst, MA | She/her | Not Nobody but also not Somebody | DMs are closed forever | “Tell all the truth but tell it slant”

862 Following | 47 Followers | 1,789 Posts

1.

Emily D. @emilydickinson · Jun 1861

I’m Nobody! Who are you? Are you – Nobody – too? Then there’s a pair of us – don’t tell! They’d advertise – you know!

How public – like a Frog – To tell one’s name – the livelong June – To an admiring Bog!

4,712 Retweets · 28,903 Likes · 1,247 Quote Tweets · 892 Replies

Walt Whitman @waltwhitman · Jun 1861 Replying to @emilydickinson

I celebrate myself, and sing myself, and what I assume you shall assume! The frog sings too, Emily, the frog is democratic, the frog is the voice of the marsh and the marsh is America!

Emily D. @emilydickinson · Jun 1861 Replying to @waltwhitman

Sir – you are the Bog.

2,891 Retweets · 41,206 Likes

T.W. Higginson @TWHigginson · Jun 1861 Replying to @emilydickinson

Emily, I think you mean “a pair of us – please don’t tell.” The contraction is more natural. Also, “Frog” should not be capitalized. Shall I edit?

garden hermit @solitudefan1830 · Jun 1861 Replying to @emilydickinson

this is literally the best anti-influencer manifesto ever written and it was posted by an account with 47 followers. peak consistency.

2.

Emily D. @emilydickinson · 1862

Tell all the truth but tell it slant – Success in Circuit lies Too bright for our infirm Delight The Truth’s superb surprise As Lightning to the Children eased With explanation kind The Truth must dazzle gradually Or every man be blind –

6,340 Retweets · 34,188 Likes · 2,019 Quote Tweets · 743 Replies

Ralph Waldo Emerson @RWEmerson · 1862 Quote Tweet

I have been saying this for thirty years but she said it in eight lines. This is either plagiarism or genius and I am not comfortable with either option.

T.W. Higginson @TWHigginson · 1862 Replying to @emilydickinson

Emily, this is very fine, but I must note that the dashes are unconventional. Commas would serve better in lines 1, 3, and 8. And “Circuit” is not typically capitalized. I would advise revision before any thought of publication.

modern poet @MFAcandidate2024 · 1862 Quote Tweet

She literally invented the entire theory of indirect communication a hundred years before anyone had a word for it and her editor told her to fix the punctuation. This is why we drink.

3.

Emily D. @emilydickinson · 1862

Wild Nights – Wild Nights! Were I with thee Wild Nights should be Our luxury!

Futile – the winds – To a Heart in port – Done with the Compass – Done with the Chart!

Rowing in Eden – Ah, the Sea! Might I but moor – tonight – In thee!

11,207 Retweets · 58,449 Likes · 4,811 Quote Tweets · 2,340 Replies

Walt Whitman @waltwhitman · 1862 Quote Tweet

YES! The body electric! The flesh and the soul intertwined! I contain multitudes and so does this poem! I have written of this very subject at greater length in “Song of Myself,” sections 24 through 29, which I commend to your attention

Lavinia Dickinson @lavinia_d · 1862 Replying to @waltwhitman

Walt no one asked you to promote your book under my sister’s thirst poem

T.W. Higginson @TWHigginson · 1862 Replying to @emilydickinson

Emily – I beg you. This poem must never be published. It would be misunderstood. The “Wild Nights” will be taken literally and your reputation will not survive it.

literary internet @booktwt · 1862 Quote Tweet

she wrote “might I but moor – tonight – In thee” in 1862 and every love poem since has been trying to catch up. she is never catching up. log off and go home.

4.

Emily D. @emilydickinson · 1862

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain, And Mourners to and fro Kept treading – treading – till it seemed That Sense was breaking through –

And when they all were seated, A Service, like a Drum – Kept beating – beating – till I thought My mind was going numb –

And then – I heard them lift a Box And creak across my Soul With those same Boots of Lead, again, Then Space – began to toll,

As all the Heavens were a Bell, And Being, but an Ear, And I, and Silence, some strange Race, Wrecked, solitary, here –

And then a Plank in Reason, broke, And I dropped down, and down – And hit a World, at every plunge, And Finished knowing – then –

14,891 Retweets · 67,220 Likes · 5,446 Quote Tweets · 3,109 Replies

T.W. Higginson @TWHigginson · 1862 Replying to @emilydickinson

Emily, I confess this poem troubles me. “A Plank in Reason, broke” is striking but I cannot determine whether this is allegory or confession. Are you quite well? Amherst has excellent physicians.

mental health twitter @validating_your_experience · 1862 Quote Tweet

she described dissociation, depersonalization, and the complete structural collapse of conscious experience in 1862 and her editor asked if she needed a doctor. the doctor would have needed a doctor after reading this.

Walt Whitman @waltwhitman · 1862 Replying to @emilydickinson

I too have felt the funeral. I too have plunged. But I emerged! Into the open air! Emily, come outside, the grass is waiting, I will show you the leaves

Emily D. @emilydickinson · 1862 Replying to @waltwhitman

I do not go outside.

9,104 Retweets · 52,387 Likes

5.

Emily D. @emilydickinson · 1863

Because I could not stop for Death – He kindly stopped for me – The Carriage held but just Ourselves – And Immortality.

We slowly drove – He knew no haste And I had put away My labor and my leisure too, For His Civility –

18,230 Retweets · 91,544 Likes · 7,812 Quote Tweets · 4,201 Replies

existentialist twitter @camuswouldlaugh · 1863 Quote Tweet

death showed up in an uber and she got in and rated him five stars. this is the hardest thing anyone has ever written.

T.W. Higginson @TWHigginson · 1863 Replying to @emilydickinson

Emily, I must again counsel against publication. The personification of Death as a gentleman caller is unusual and will confuse readers. Perhaps “Fate” instead of “Death”? And “kindly” is the wrong tone for the subject.

Walt Whitman @waltwhitman · 1863 Replying to @emilydickinson

In my poem “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” I too address Death, though I treat him as a comrade, a dark mother, a deliverer! Death is not a carriage ride, Emily, Death is a vast democratic embrace!

random follower @amherstlocal · 1863 Replying to @waltwhitman

Walt she did not @ you. She has never @’d you. She will never @ you.

3,210 Retweets · 19,847 Likes

6.

Emily D. @emilydickinson · 1862

The Soul selects her own Society – Then – shuts the Door – To her divine Majority – Present no more –

Unmoved – she notes the Chariots – pausing – At her low Gate – Unmoved – an Emperor be kneeling Upon her Mat –

I’ve known her – from an ample nation – Choose One – Then – close the Valves of her attention – Like Stone –

8,902 Retweets · 43,118 Likes · 3,244 Quote Tweets · 1,677 Replies

introvert twitter @recharging_alone · 1862 Quote Tweet

she said “I’ve known her – from an ample nation – Choose One – Then – close the Valves of her attention – Like Stone” and this has been my entire social strategy since birth

T.W. Higginson @TWHigginson · 1862 Replying to @emilydickinson

“Valves of her attention” is an unusual construction. I wonder if “gates” would be clearer? Also, Emily, I do worry that the poem’s subject may be taken as an endorsement of reclusiveness, which would not reflect well.

Lavinia Dickinson @lavinia_d · 1862 Replying to @TWHigginson

Mr. Higginson she has not left the house in four years. It is not an endorsement. It is a press release.

5,677 Retweets · 31,002 Likes

7.

Emily D. @emilydickinson · 1862

Much Madness is divinest Sense – To a discerning Eye – Much Sense – the starkest Madness – ‘Tis the Majority In this, as all, prevail – Assent – and you are sane – Demur – you’re straightway dangerous – And handled with a Chain –

13,419 Retweets · 62,008 Likes · 6,101 Quote Tweets · 2,890 Replies

Michel Foucault @foucault_ghost · 1862 Quote Tweet

I will write a 300-page book about this in 1961. She did it in eight lines in 1862. I am going to go sit down for a very long time.

Walt Whitman @waltwhitman · 1862 Quote Tweet

I too resist convention! I too am untamed! I sound my barbaric YAWP over the rooftops of the world! Emily speaks truth – madness IS sense – I have always

Emily D. @emilydickinson · 1862 Quote Tweet of @waltwhitman

Demur – you’re straightway dangerous – And handled with a Chain –

I was not speaking of you, Walt. I was speaking of the Chain. You are the Majority who does not know it is the Majority.

16,502 Retweets · 78,334 Likes

T.W. Higginson @TWHigginson · 1862 Replying to @emilydickinson

Emily, this is powerful, but “handled with a Chain” may strike readers as melodramatic. I wonder if “met with some resistance” might better serve the line? I only suggest this in the spirit of making the poem suitable for the public.

8.

Emily D. @emilydickinson · 1863

I heard a Fly buzz – when I died – The Stillness in the Room Was like the Stillness in the Air – Between the Heaves of Storm –

The Eyes around – had wrung them dry – And Breaths were gathering firm For that last Onset – when the King Be witnessed – in the Room –

I willed my Keepsakes – Signed away What portion of me be Assignable – and then it was There interposed a Fly –

With Blue – uncertain – stumbling Buzz – Between the light – and me – And then the Windows failed – and then I could not see to see –

21,340 Retweets · 104,777 Likes · 9,203 Quote Tweets · 5,512 Replies

T.W. Higginson @TWHigginson · 1863 Replying to @emilydickinson

Emily. This is – I must be frank – morbid beyond what I can recommend. The deathbed is a sacred scene. A fly has no place in it. I must strongly advise you to reconsider the central image. Perhaps a dove? A dove would be more fitting.

literary critic @harpers_review · 1863 Quote Tweet

Every deathbed poem in the English language promises you God showing up at the end. She promised you God and delivered a fly. This woman just ratio’d the entire Western theological tradition in sixteen lines.

someone in the replies @grave_thoughts · 1863 Replying to @emilydickinson

“I could not see to see” is the most terrifying line in American poetry and she just dropped it at the end and logged off

Walt Whitman @waltwhitman · 1863 Replying to @emilydickinson

The fly is small but it too is part of the great procession! The fly too is divine! I see the fly and I say: you are beautiful, you are

Lavinia Dickinson @lavinia_d · 1863 Replying to @waltwhitman

Walt she is describing her own death and you are complimenting the fly

7,893 Retweets · 44,561 Likes

9.

Emily D. @emilydickinson · 1862

I dwell in Possibility – A fairer House than Prose – More numerous of Windows – Superior – for Doors –

Of Chambers as the Cedars – Impregnable of eye – And for an everlasting Roof The Gambrels of the Sky –

Of Visitors – the fairest – For Occupation – This – The spreading wide my narrow Hands To gather Paradise –

7,118 Retweets · 36,904 Likes · 2,870 Quote Tweets · 1,103 Replies

Walt Whitman @waltwhitman · 1862 Quote Tweet

Yes!! Possibility!! Open air!! The gambol of the soul in the great fields of –

Emily D. @emilydickinson · 1862 Replying to @waltwhitman

Gambrels. Not gambol. It is Architecture, Walt. I am building a House. You are running through a field. We are not the same.

11,208 Retweets · 59,102 Likes

T.W. Higginson @TWHigginson · 1862 Replying to @emilydickinson

This is lovely, Emily. “A fairer House than Prose” is very fine. I might suggest this is among your most publishable efforts! Though “Impregnable of eye” remains unclear to me. Could you clarify in a revision?

architecture twitter @gothicrevivalist · 1862 Quote Tweet

she used “Gambrels” (a roof type) as a metaphor for the sky and I have never in my life seen anyone flex harder with a building term. She is the only poet who has ever understood load-bearing structure as a spiritual category.

10.

Emily D. @emilydickinson · 1864

My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun – In Corners – till a Day The Owner passed – identified – And carried Me away –

And now We roam in Sovereign Woods – And now We hunt the Doe – And every time I speak for Him – The Mountains straight reply –

And do I smile, such cordial light Upon the Valley glow – It is as a Vesuvian face Had let its pleasure through –

Though I than He – may longer live He longer must – than I – For I have but the power to kill, Without – the power to die –

24,506 Retweets · 119,330 Likes · 11,441 Quote Tweets · 6,782 Replies

feminist literary criticism @secondwavecanon · 1864 Quote Tweet

she compared herself to a loaded gun in 1864. the poem is about power, gender, agency, latent violence, the ownership of women’s voices, and the terrifying possibility that the instrument is more dangerous than the person who wields it. there are entire PhD programs about this poem. she was twenty minutes ahead of every single one of them.

T.W. Higginson @TWHigginson · 1864 Replying to @emilydickinson

Emily, I confess this poem alarms me. “The power to kill, Without – the power to die” – I cannot make sense of it. It is too violent for a woman’s voice. I must advise against circulation.

Emily D. @emilydickinson · 1864 Replying to @TWHigginson

Thank you, Mr. Higginson. I will take your counsel under advisement.

[She did not take his counsel under advisement. She wrote 1,779 more poems and published none of them.]

19,004 Retweets · 87,216 Likes

Walt Whitman @waltwhitman · 1864 Replying to @emilydickinson

The gun too is a body! The gun too contains multitudes!

everyone in the replies @literarytwitter · 1864 Replying to @waltwhitman

Walt. Read the room.

8,340 Retweets · 47,002 Likes

Engagement Summary

Analysis

The metrics tell the story the biography already told, just faster.

Whitman posts constantly, tags himself into every conversation, writes in the reply-all register of a man who believes volume is authority. He averages twelve hundred likes – respectable, not embarrassing, the numbers of a mid-tier literary influencer who gets steady engagement from the same base. He is not bad. He is just loud. And loudness, on a timeline that includes Dickinson, turns out to be the least interesting frequency available.

Dickinson posts ten times and averages nearly seventy thousand likes. She does not reply to Whitman except to correct him. She does not reply to Higginson except to politely decline his advice and then ignore it. Her highest-engagement post – “My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun” – outperforms Whitman’s best post by a factor of roughly a hundred. She ratio’d him without trying. She ratio’d him by existing in the same medium.

Higginson, her mentor and editor, appears under every post with the same note: this is unusual, please normalize it, consider revision. He is not wrong that the work is unusual. He is catastrophically wrong about what to do about it. He is Reviewer 2 in his purest form – the gatekeeper whose instinct, confronted with something that does not fit the existing framework, is to make it fit rather than update the framework. He told her the dashes were errors. The dashes were the invention. He told her the capitalization was random. The capitalization was the system. He told her not to publish “Wild Nights.” “Wild Nights” has been in continuous print for over a century.

The replies section is where the argument lives. Whitman shows up in her mentions like a man who has wandered into someone else’s party and started giving a speech. His engagement is a fraction of hers. His replies to her posts get ratioed by her sister. He is, in the language of the platform, down bad in her replies – and the platform is telling him so, in real time, through the only metric the platform respects.

Dickinson did not need the platform. That is the point. She wrote 1,789 poems, published ten, and let the rest detonate on a delay. The account had forty-seven followers. The poems did not care. The poems were loaded guns standing in corners, waiting for someone to pick them up. It took about a hundred years. The mountains are still replying.

The troll won. She did not even have to log on.