Amherst. May 7. 1845.

Dear Abiah

It seems almost an age since I have seen you, & it is indeed an age for friends to be separated. I was delighted to receive a paper from you & I also was much pleased with the news it contained especially that you are taking lessons on the Piny (1) as you always call it. But remember not to get on ahead of me. Father intends to have a Piano very soon. How happy I shall be when I have one of my own. Old Father Time has wrought many changes here since your last short visit. Miss Sarah Thurston and Miss Nancy More have both taken the marriage vows opon themselves. Dr Hitchcock has moved into his new house & Mr Tyler across the way from our house has moved into President Hitchcocks old house. Mr Colman is going to move into Mr Tylers former house, but the worst thing Old Time has done here is he has walked so fast as to overtake Hatty Merrill and carry her to Hartford on last week Saturday. I was so vexed with him for it that I ran after him & made out to get near enough to him to put some salt on his tail when he fled and left me to run home alone. Abby Wood, Sarah Tracy and I are left all ....Viny went to Boston this morning with father to be gone a fortnight, & I am left alone in all my glory. I suppose she has got there before this time & is probably staring with mouth & eyes wide open at the wonders of the city. I have been to walk tonight and got some very choice wild flowers. I wish you had some of them. Viny and I both go to school this term. We have a very fine school. There are 63 scholars. I have four studies. They are Mental Philosophy, Geology, Latin and Botany. How large they sound, dont they. I dont believe you have such big studys. Abby Wood & I sit together, and have real nice times. There is just room enough at our table for you and Hatty Merrill. How I wish you were both here this moment. I had a newspaper as large as life from Miss Adams our dear teacher. She sent me a beautiful little bunch of pressed flowers which I value very much as they were from her. How happy we all were together that term we went to Miss Adams. I wish it might be so again, but I never expect it. I have had two letters from Luthera since her mother died. She is keeping house now. She says they have a good girl & get along very well, though she misses her mother very much. I pity her very much she must be so lonely without her mother. I dont know of any news in particular to tell you, except that Emeline Kellogg is preparing to go away to school. Jane Gridley, Miss Gridley I should have said has gone to Norton to school. Martha Gilbert still lives and moves and has her being pretty much as ever. My plants look finely now. I am going to send you a little Geranium leaf in this letter which you must press for me. Have you made you an Herbarium yet. I hope you will if you have not, it would be such a treasure to you, most all the girls are making one. If you do perhaps I can make some additions to it from flowers growing around here. How do you enjoy your school this term. Are the teachers as pleasant as our old school teachers. I expect you have a great many prim, starched up young ladys there, who I doubt not are perfect models of propriety & good behavior. If they are, dont let your free spirit be chained by them. I dont know as there [are] any in school of this stamp. But there most always are a few, whom the teachers look up to & regard as their satellites. I am growing handsome very fast indeed. I expect I shall be the Belle of Amherst when I reach my 17th year. I dont doubt that I shall have perfect crowds of admirers at that age. Then how I shall delight to make them await my bidding, and with what delight shall I witness their suspense while I make my final decision. But away with my nonsense. I have written one composition this term, and I need not assure you it was exceedingly edifying to myself as well as everybody else. Dont you want to see it. I really wish you could have a chance. We are obliged to write Compositions once in a fortnight, and select a piece to read from some interesting book the week that we dont write compositions.

We really have some most charming young women in school this term. I shant call them anything but women, for women they are in every sense of the word. I must describe one, and while I describe her I wish Imagination who is ever present with you to make a little picture of this self same young lady in your mind and by her aid see if you cannot conceive how she looks. Well to begin. She is exceedingly tall, slim & crooked, her face is about the size and possessed of the commodities of a nut shell, her eyes are like cats- two green glass bottles which are set in her head and dont fit, hair is the color of a dark brown wooden bowl mother has to chop meat in - her teeth resemble shovels, especially the two front ones which protrude out of her mouth at an angle of 45 degrees perhaps, her voice resembles the piping of a school boys whistle, though perhaps not so much melody in it as the above named instrument. Then just imagine her as she is and a huge string of gold beads encircling her neck and dont she present a lively picture, and then she is so bustling, she is always whizzing about and whenever I come in contact with her I really think I am in a hornets nest. I cant help thinking every time I see this singular piece of humanity of Shakespeares description of a Tempest in a Teapot (2) . But I must not laugh about her, for I verily believe she has a good heart, and that is the principal thing now days. Dont you hope I shall become wiser in the company of such virtuosos. It would certainly be desirable. Have you noticed how beautifully the trees look now. They seem to be completely covered with fragrant blossoms. Sarah and Abby both send their best love to you, also Sabra. Sarah wishes you to write to her soon without waiting to hear from her first, and Abby wishes the same. You must excuse me, Biah for not writing this letter in order to have reached you on last Wednesday, but I had so many things to do for Viny as she was going away, that very much against my wishes I deferred writing you until now, but forgive and forget Dear Abiah and I will promise to do better in future. Do write me soon, and let it be a long long letter, and when you cant get time to write send a paper so as to let me know you think of me still though we are separated by hill and stream. All the girls send much love to you. Dont forget to let me receive a letter from you soon. If you can by the last of next week or the first of week after. I can say no more now as my paper is all filled up. Your affectionate friend Emily E Dickinson.

Footnotes:

    (1) "Piny" significa "relativo al pino, simile al pino" e si pronuncia "paini"; evidentemente Abiah Root pronunciava "ai" la "i" di "piano", una storpiatura fonetica non riproducibile in italiano (Margherita Guidacci traduce con "pano" e Barbara Lanati con "pinoforte").

    (2) Secondo Johnson è probabile che la citazione shakespeariana sia riferita al Sogno di una notte di mezza estate, III, ii: "Puck. Lord, what fools these mortal be" ("Puck. Signore, come sono sciocchi questi mortali"); la citazione è però generica, un modo di dire che ho tradotto nel corrispondente italiano, e magari poteva essere colta da Abiah Root perché riferita a qualche brano shakespeariano che le due amiche avevano letto insieme.