Poems on Faith

by EMILY DICKINSON (1830-1886)

“Faith” is a Fine Invention

“Faith” is a fine invention
When gentlemen can see
But Microscopes are prudent
In an Emergency.

The Child’s Faith is New

The Child’s faith is new
Whole like His Principle
Wide like the Sunrise
On fresh Eyes
Never had a Doubt
Laughs at a Scruple
Believes all sham
But Paradise

Credits the World
Deems His Dominion
Broadest of Sovereignties
And Caesar mean
In the Comparison
Baseless Emperor
Ruler of Nought
Yet swaying all

Grown bye and bye
To hold mistaken
His pretty estimates
Of Prickly Things
He gains the skill
Sorrowful as certain
Men to anticipate
Instead of Kings

Faith is the Pierless Bridge

Faith is the Pierless Bridge
Supporting what We see
Unto the Scene that We do not
Too slender for the eye

It bears the Soul as bold
As it were rocked in Steel
With Arms of Steel at either side
It joins behind the Veil

To what, could We presume
The Bridge would cease to be
To Our far, vacillating Feet
A first Necessity.

Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst, MA, to a family well known for educational and political activity. Her father, an orthodox Calvinist, was a lawyer and treasurer of the local college. He also served in Congress. Dickinson’s mother, whose name was also Emily, was a cold, religious, hard-working housewife, who suffered from depression. Her relationship with her daughter was distant. Dickinson once wrote in a letter that she never had a mother.