Chapter 11 - Emily Dickinson and Elvis Presley in Heaven - Exploring the Text: The poem depends somewhat on the reader’s familiarity with the works of Dickinson and Presley. Look up the references you don’t recognize—such as Dickinson’s poems “I taste a liquor never brewed” and “Hope is the thing with feathers,” Presley’s song “Love Me Tender,” Little Richard, Amherst, and naugahyde. Then reconsider Ostrom’s poem with all the blanks filled in.