A Brief Biography Of Emily Dickinson

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The famous well-known poet, Emily Elizabeth Dickinson, was born on December 10, 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts. Growing up, she was busy with schooling, religious activities, gardening, baking, and exploring nature. Her family was well known in Massachusetts; her dad was a member of the governor’s cabinet and a US Congressman. In 1840, she attended Amherst Academy. At Amherst Academy, she was an excellent student. Many said she caught much attention and was very original in the way she presented herself. Dickinson’s poetry has a great amount of scientific vocabulary and she gained most of her knowledge about it at this academy. Seven years later, she enrolled in Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. At Mount Holyoke, she was academically successful and was very involved. Like most institutions at the time, Mount Holyoke believed that the students’ religious lives were part of responsibility. Dickinson refused to take part of the school’s Christian evangelical efforts. She had not given up on the claims of Christ, but didn’t think it was an important matter. Dickinson loved sending short poems to friends during the holidays and other special occasions. On Valentine’s Day in 1849, Dickinson wrote a poem and sent it to William Howland, one of the young men in her father’s law office. Howland was so impressed by the poem; he sent it to the Springfield Republican newspaper. A few days later, Dickinson caught sight of the poem printed on the page. She was completely horrified and successfully hid the paper from her father. This shows that she kept her poems a secret. By the mid- 1850’s, her mother became ill with plague for the rest of her life, so Dickinson confined herself to the house. At that time on, she was starting taking her poetry... ... middle of paper ... ...poem because when I read it, I suddenly became interested. The thought of the speaker going through stages of a breakdown and referring to it as a “funeral’ was quite unique. The speaker didn’t really know and experience insanity till then. I learned that when you’re having a rough time and having trouble to figure out the difficult events, you can still fix the causes of what’s going on. The poem helps me understand what it’s like to be at that point in your life, if that happens. Emily Dickinson was a very unique and original writer. She’s very inspiring to me, as well to others. She was full of mystery and I think that’s why people are so interested in her, except the fact that she wrote wonderful, creative poetry. Her dark way of writing things make you think and keep wondering. Her poems will be such an inspiration, passed on from generation to generation.

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