'If you choose words carefully they resonate forever.'

Soprano Helen Noonan on the poetry of Emily Dickinson.
Helen Noonan has performed in the lieder opera Voicing Emily, The Life and Times of Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson's poetry helped her make sense of her own life and she says she was deeply affected in many dimensions. 

Noonan says, " She uses the same language as Shakespeare and Mozart. If you choose words carefully they resonate forever. That is why the arts are so potentially valuable because they can connect a society to infinity."

Spoken by Emily Dickinson

A word is dead
When it is said,
Some say.
I say it just
Begins to live
That day.

From 'Poet's evocative words brought to life again as soprano performs an encore' by Robin Usher, published in The Age, Melbourne, 16 August 2012.

http://www.online-literature.com/dickinson/