A precious, mouldering pleasure 't is To meet an antique book, In…

A precious, mouldering pleasure 't is To meet an antique book, In just the dress his century wore; A privilege, I think, His venerable hand to take, And warming in our own, A passage back, or two, to make To times when he was young.

Emily Dickinson1830–1886 · poet · 1800s USAEmily Dickinson wrote nearly 1,800 poems in Amherst, Massachusetts, in short lines full of dashes that made ordinary words feel startling and new.47 quotes

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How sure this is: 95% sureThese words were traced back to where they first appeared. That source is listed below.
What turned up: In a Library, Poems: First Series (1890); Exact wording and attribution checked. First two stanzas. Wording follows the early edited edition, which differs from modern manuscript-based editions.
Work: In a Library, Poems: First Series (1890)
Sources checked: gutenberg.orgChecked using manual, 21 October 2026In a Library, Poems: First Series (1890); Exact wording and attribution checked. First two stanzas. Wording follows the early edited edition, which differs from modern manuscript-based editions.