Emily Dickinson

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 - May 15, 1886) was an American poet. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life. Thought of as an eccentric by the locals, she became known for her penchant for white clothing and her reluctance to greet guests or, later in life, even leave her room. Most of her friendships were therefore carried out by correspondence.

Although Dickinson was a prolific private poet, fewer than a dozen of her nearly eighteen hundred poems were published during here lifetime was usually altered significantly by the publishers to fit the conventional poetic rules of the time. Dickinson's poems are unique for the era in which she wrote; they contain short lines, typically lack titles, and often use slant rhyme as well as unconventional capitalization and punctuation. Many of her poems deal with themes of death and immortality, two recurring topics in letters to her friends.

Although most of her acquaintances were probably aware of Dickinson's writing, it was not until after her death in 1886 - when Lavinia, Emily's younger sister, discovered her cache of poems - that the breadth of Dickinson's work became apparent. Her first collection of poetry was published in 1890 by personal acquaintances Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd, both of whom heavily edited the content. A complete and mostly unaltered collection of her poetry became available for the first time 1955 when The Poem of Emily Dickinson was published by scholar Thomas H. Johnson. Despite unfavorable reviews and skepticism of her literary prowess during the late 19th and early 20th century, critics now consider Dickinson to be a major American poet.

Dickinson's Life 1

Emily Dickinson can be seen as eccentric (my view) or as psychologically unbalanced or even crazy (less tolerant views). For example, from her late teens through her twenties she adopted the more childish spelling of her name, "Emilie"; her letters repeatedly express the wish to remain a child. She didn't learn to tell time until her mid-teens, because, she claimed, as a child she hadn't understood her father's explanation and didn't want him to know. She wore only white for almost her entire adult life. Of course there is a great deal of conjecture about her love life and her never marrying: are the references in her poems and letters to actual men whom she was in love with, or are the men and love imaginary? She became increasingly reclusive in her thirties until finally she almost never left the house. Her behavior at social gatherings in the Dickinson home, while she still attended them, was distinct. She asked whether a guest would rather have a glass of wine or a rose. One guest described her manner of appearing at such occasions:"a moment when conversation lagged a little, she would sweep in, clad in immaculate white, pass through the rooms, silently curtseying and saluting right and left, and sweep out again."     immaculate = spotless

As a recluse, she occasionally stayed in her room rather than meet even close friends and rushed away when strangers visited; sometimes she talked with friends while hidden behind a partially open door. She stayed in her room and listened to her father's funeral service, which was held on the lawn of her home. She stayed in the next room to listen to a young woman play her piano and then sent her notes of appreciation. Even when ill, including when she was dying, she kept aloof; her doctor had to diagnose her as she walked by an open door. This does not mean that she cut herself off entirely from people; she had an extensive and active correspondence and saw an occasional, special visitor; she loved her brother's children and lowered baskets of baked goods via a pulley outside her window for neighborhood children.

And throughout her seclusion, Dickinson wrote poetry in her room. Some critics speculate that her withdrawal enabled her to write her poetry; it gave her both the space to write (her room) and the time to write by feeing her from woman's duties. Not even her sister Lavinia, on whom she depended, knew the extent of Emily's writing, not until she came across over 1700 poems after Emily's death.