If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.
Credits
Emily Dickinson was a 19th-century American poet whose deeply introspective verse made her one of the most influential writers in the English language. Though she published fewer than a dozen poems during her lifetime, her work — much of it discovered after her death in 1886 — reshaped how readers understand voice, mortality, and the inner life. This poem is among her most accessible and beloved, often cited for its gentle but firm insistence that empathy alone can give a life meaning.
