"One need not be a Chamber to be Haunted" (A Poem)

Originally written in 1862, Emily Dickinson’s poem “One need not be a Chamber to be Haunted” plays with a staple in Gothic literature: the haunted house.[1] Yet, the symbol is not used literally but figuratively, becoming a metaphor for consciousness being haunted by the specters of the mind.[2]

One need not be a chamber – to be haunted –
One need not be a House –
The Brain – has Corridors surpassing
Material Place –

Far safer, of a Midnight – meeting
External Ghost –
Than an Interior – confronting –
That cooler – Host –

Far safer, through an Abbey – gallop –
The Stones a’chase –
Than moonless – One’s A’self encounter –
In 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 Spectre
More near – [3]

Works Referenced

Dickinson, Emily. “One need not be a Chamber to be Haunted.” Emily Dickinson: Selected Poems and Letters. Peterborough: Broadway Press, 2023. 34-36.

Leiter, Sharon. Critical Companion to Emily Dickinson: A Literary Reference to Her Life and Work. New York: Facts on File, 2007.

Vendler, Helen. Dickinson: Selected Poems and Commentaries. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010.
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[1] Leiter, 159.
[2] Vendler, 184.
[3] Dickinson, 34-36.