For many years the editors of the Modern Library have sought to include in the series a comprehensive volume of Emily Dickinson's poetry. Now, through the co-operation of her original publishers, we are able to offer the passionate and mystical verses of one of the most original and appealing poets in the entire history of American letters.  The romantic circumstances under which Emily Dickinson became a hermit and guarded her poems against publication during her lifetime are now a legend; her poems themselves are the real and lasting expression of her incomparable intensity and delicacy.