Letters of Emily Dickinson

“Lord, keep all our memories green,” and help on our affection, and tie the “link that doth us bind” in a tight bow-knot that will keep it from separation, and stop us from growing old; if that is impossible, make old age pleasant to us, put its arms around us kindly, and when we go home, let that home be called heaven.

If you were here I would tell you something—several somethings—which have happened since you went away; but time and space, as usual, oppose themselves, and I put my treasures away till “we two meet again.” The hope that I shall continue in love towards you, and vice versa, will sustain me till then. If you are thinking soon to go away, and to show your face no more, just inform me, will you? I would have the “long, lingering look,” which you cast behind,—it would be an invaluable addition to my treasures, and “keep your memory green.”

lest the deep revelations of a peculiarly shy inner life might so pervade them that in true loyalty to their writer none could be publicly used.