We Grow Accustomed to the Dark

“What Mystery Pervades a Well” by Emily Dickinson (1896)

One of Emily Dickinson’s most beloved poems, this explores her relationship with the natural world and deals with the balance of discovery and the unknown, similar to the dynamic of light and darkness in “We Grow Accustomed to the Dark.”

“There's A Certain Slant Of Light” by Emily Dickinson (1890)

This poem uses the imagery of light and dark to explore similar themes of despair and the transcendence and healing that comes from working through despair, which are a common thread through Dickinson’s work.

“Mad Girl’s Love Song” by Sylvia Plath (1953)

A much later iteration from another famous American female poet, Sylvia Plath’s “Mad Girl’s Love Song” shares similar themes of finding one’s way through an unfamiliar darkness.

“Emily Dickinson: 19th Century Poet in a 21st Century World” by Stephanie Merrigan (2020)

This article explores Dickinson’s pervasive and occasionally surprising impact on the modern artistic community, and how her memory has been kept alive in a crowded literary canon.

“Open Me Carefully: Emily Dickinson's Intimate Letters to Susan Huntington Dickison” compiled by Ellen Louise Hart and Martha Nell Smith (1998)