What mystery pervades a well!

“A Dew Sufficed Itself” by Emily Dickinson

In this poem, the speaker finds infinity and unknowable mystery in another small and bounded body of water—this time, a drop of dew.

“As I Walked Out One Evening” by W.H. Auden (1940)

Auden explores the balance of manmade and natural beauty, with a similar form and rhyme scheme to “What mystery pervades a well.”

“Personal Helicon” by Seamus Heaney (1966)

Filled with nostalgia for a child’s love of wells and well water, Heaney’s poem provides an interesting contrast to Dickinson’s. Unlike Dickinson’s speaker, whose sense of wonder at nature never fades, Heaney’s speaker rues the ebbing away of curiosity that accompanies age and maturity.

“Emily Dickinson’s Herbarium: A Forgotten Treasure at the Intersection of Science and Poetry” by Maria Popova (2017)

An exploration of Emily Dickinson’s botanical studies with images of her prized herbal compendium.

“Coda: Natural Messages and Aesthetic Pleasure in Emily Dickinson’s Nature Writing” by Grace Mei-shu Chen

An in-depth analysis on the influence of nature and Dickinson’s natural homestead on her writing.

“Emily Dickinson is the unlikely hero of our time” by Matthew Redmond (2020)