Emily Dickinson Lexicon

wilderness, n. [OE *wild(d)éornes, place of wild animals.] (webplay: desert, human).

1. Emptiness; bleakness; desolation; hollowness.
2. Badlands; wasteland; uncivilized region; uninhabited area; unknown expanse; uncultivated tract of land; [fig.] mortality; the trials of earthly life.