Soul, Wilt Thou Toss Again?

Soul, Wilt Thou Toss Again? - fact Summary

First Printed 1896

This brief lyric was first printed in 1896 in the collection Poems by Emily Dickinson. Its appearance in that volume—one of the editions that brought Dickinson’s compact, elliptical poems to wider readership—frames how readers first encountered her odd syntax and metaphors. Knowing its original placement helps explain why the poem is often read as a concise, self-contained meditation using gambling imagery to stage an existential wager.