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Can you tell me which one is correct?

  1. Emily Dickinson's garden was a place from which she drew great inspiration for her poems.

  2. Emily Dickinson's garden was a place that she drew great inspiration for her poems.

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To imitate one of the best answers I've read here...

You have four possible ways to rephrase that sentence:

  1. with a ‘null-relativizer’ → Emily Dickinson's garden was a place she drew great inspiration for her poems from.
  2. with that → Emily Dickinson's garden was a place that she drew great inspiration for her poems from.
  3. with which → Emily Dickinson's garden was a place which she drew great inspiration for her poems from.
  4. with which and ‘pied-piping’ → Emily Dickinson's garden was a place from which she drew great inspiration for her poems.

So, only your first alternative is correct. The second one will need from at the end of sentence. Please also note that the relative that may not pied-pipe.

You can find more details on 'pied-piping' in StoneyB's answer mentioned above.

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The answer can also be determined logically. The garden was the source of her inspiration. Her inspiration was the garden; it was from the garden. So, "from which" is correct.

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  • Welcome to ELL. Nice self-edit to remove your question-in-an-answer.
    – Peter
    Jan 4, 2016 at 7:57

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