Emily Dickinson and Her Poetry
Emily Dickinson is one of the great visionary poets of nineteenth century America. In her lifetime, she composed more poems than most modern Americans will even read in their lifetimes. Dickinson is still praised today, and she continues to be taught in schools, read for pleasure, and studied for research and criticism. Since she stayed inside her house for most of her life, and many of her poems were not discovered until after her death, Dickinson was uninvolved in the publication process of her poetry.
The Poetry and Life of Emily Dickinson
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830. She was from a small town in Amherst, Massachusetts. One hundred and seventy-one years later people enjoy reading Emilyâs poetry. There is intrigue behind both her poetry and her life.
Emily Dickinson's Works
There is a life in Emily Dickinson’s poems, readers have found. Although one may not completely understand her as a legend, a writer, or as a part of literature books, she is considered one of America’s greatest poets. While unknown answers may not be revealed about her, secrets may not be told, nor any new discoveries made, evidence from books and articles showing Emily Dickinson’s experiences and hardships exists. Critic Paul J. Ferlazzo describes her writings: “Many students and casual readers of her poetry have enjoyed hearing tales about her which remind them of storybook heroines locked in castles, of beautiful maidens cruelty relegated to a life of drudgery and obscurity, of genius so great that all the world’s suppression cannot deny its flowering.” 1 Many researchers ignore the bases of her writings, her life, and her dreams.
Emily Dickinson, regarded as one of America’s greatest poets, is also well known for her unusual life of self imposed social seclusion. Living a life of simplicity and seclusion, she yet wrote poetry of great power; questioning the nature of immortality and death. Her different lifestyle created an aura; often romanticized, and frequently a source of interest and speculation. But ultimately Emily Dickinson is remembered for her unique poetry. Within short, compact phrases she expressed far-reaching ideas; amidst paradox and uncertainty her poetry has an undeniable capacity to move and provoke.
EMILY DICKINSON
Emily Dickinson lived in an era of Naturalism and Realism (1855-1910). She lived in a period of The Civil War and the Frontier. She was affected by her life and the era she lived in. She also had many deaths in her family and that’s part of the reason that she was very morbid and wrote about death.
Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson's unusual character and style has made her become one of the world's most famous poets. In her poems, she expresses her feelings about religion, nature, death and love. Her poems tell a great deal about her lifestyle, which was very secluded and withdrawn from society.
Dickinson's prosperous family expected her to live as a Christian, and someday have a family of her own (Lit 927). Dickinson, however, rebelled against this traditional way of life, as she developed and lived by her own personal beliefs.
“Behavior is what a man does, not what he thinks, feels, or believes.” was one of Emily Dickinson’s most famous quotes, showing much of her swaying from Romanticism to a more Realistic view, and changing the standards of writing along with it. Between 1858 and 1864 Emily Dickinson wrote over forty hand bound volumes of nearly 1800 poems, yet during her lifetime only a few were published. Perhaps this is why today we see Dickinson as a highly influential writer, unlike those during her time who did not see the potential. Emily Dickinson wrote most of her works towards the end of the romanticism era, but considered more of a realist, ahead of her time and one to shape the new movement. The main characteristic of Romanticism that Dickinson portrays in her writing emphases of the importance of nature to the Romantics, but she is known as a Realist because of her concern and fascination with death, and the harsh realities of life. Emily Dickinson’s upbringing and early education, along with living in reclusion with death all around her, greatly influenced on of the greatest female poets of all time.
Emily is still one of the most well respected and influential writers today. All the things that happened in her life affected how she wrote and what she wrote about. Emily suffered through a lot of death,but through this, death became one of her main themes in her poetry. Due to her love for nature Emily made it one of her prominent themes as well. Other things such as the civil war, time and eternity, and death are presented as common themes. Most of her life was spent in seclusion, but this seclusion led to her beautiful writings,which influenced other poets and the literature world in general. Emily Dickinson will forever be recognized as an astonishing writer.
"This is my letter to the world, who never wrote to me. The simple news that nature told, with tender majesty," (Dickinson, 21). I, Emily Dickinson, am one of the greatest American poets of all time. I was born on December 10, 1830 on a cold winter day in Amherst, Massachusetts at my family's home, which we called the Homestead ("Emily Dickinson," Bio.). I had one brother, William, and one sister, Lavinia. We all went to Amherst Academy together as children ("Emily Dickinson," Poetry Foundation).
Dickinson, Emily Elizabeth (1830-1886), America’s best-known female poet and one of the foremost authors in American literature. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, Dickinson was the middle child of a lawyer and one-term United States congressional representative, Edward Dickinson, and his wife, Emily Norcross Dickinson. From 1840 to 1847 she attended the Amherst Academy, and from 1847 to 1848 she studied at the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in South Hadley, a few miles from Amherst. Dickinson remained in Amherst, living in the same house on Main Street from 1855 until her death. During her lifetime, she published only about 10 of her nearly 2,000 poems, in newspapers, Civil War journals, and a poetry anthology. The notion that Dickinson was extremely reclusive is a popular one, but it is at best a partial truth. Although she never married and certainly became more selective over the years about the company she kept, Dickinson was far more sociable than most descriptions would have us believe. Biographers are increasingly recognizing the vital role of Dickinson’s sister-in-law, Susan Dickinson, in her writing. For more than 35 years the two women lived next door to each other, sharing mutual passions for literature, music, cooking, and gardening. Emily sent Susan more than 400 poems and letter-poems, twice as many as she sent to any other correspondent. In 1998 Open Me Carefully: Emily Dickinson’s Intimate Letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson was published, documenting the two women’s friendship.