She went on talking constantly and saying, in the midst of narrative, things quaint and aphoristic. “Is it oblivion or absortion when things pass from our minds?” “Truth is such a rare thing, it is delightful to tell it” …”how do most people live without any thoughts?” … Or this crowning extravaganza: “If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way?”
-Thomas Wentworth Higginson recounting his meeting with Emily Dickinson, August 16, 1870
