I—Years—had been—from Home— Summary & Analysis
by Emily Dickinson

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"I years had been from home" is American poet Emily Dickinson's reflection on change. Returning to a former home after long years away, the poem's speaker finds they can't even muster the courage to open the door: confronting everything that could have changed just seems too scary. Change, the poem reflects, can be as frightening as it is inevitable. Like a lot of Dickinson's work, this poem wasn't published until after Dickinson died; it first appeared in a posthumous collection, Poems (1891).

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