The way Hope builds his House

Emily Dickinson took an envelope addressed to “Mrs. Edward Dickinson and Family” and carefully tore away parts of it to form this unique shape. The poem exists in no other drafts.

The way Hope builds his House
It is not with a sill –
Nor Rafter – has that Edifice
But only Pinnacle –

Abode in as supreme
This superficies
As if it were of Ledges smit
Or mortised with the Laws –