THE soul selects her own society,
Then shuts the door;
On her divine majority
Obtrude no more.
Unmoved, she notes the chariot’s pausing
At her low gate;
Unmoved, an emperor is kneeling
Upon her mat.
I’ve known her from an ample nation
Choose one;
Then close the valves to her attention
Like stone.
Credits
Emily Dickinson was a 19th-century American poet whose compressed, unconventional verse went largely unpublished during her lifetime yet transformed the landscape of modern poetry. "Exclusion" — also known by its first line, "The Soul selects her own Society" — is considered one of her most defining works, distilling her lifelong fascination with solitude, inner sovereignty, and the quiet radicalism of withdrawal into just twelve spare lines.
