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_Emily Dickinson _
By: Courtney
"Emily Dickinson" Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet of the
nineteenth century. She was one of the greatest masters of the short lyric
poem. Not much is known about her life, but what is known is unusual and
interesting. Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts on December
tenth, eighteen hundred thirty, to a prominent family. [ 9.
http://www.kutztown.edu/faculty/ reagan/*censored*inson.html ] She was the
second child of three children. Her grandfather, Samuel Dickinson, was one of
the founders of the Amherst College. Edward Dickinson, her father, held
several political positions. He was on the General Court of Massachusetts,
Massachusetts State Senate, and United States House Representatives. Edward
was also a lawyer and the treasurer for the college. [ 9.
http://www.kutztown.edu/faculty/reagan/*censored*inso n.html ] Emily's mother,
Emily Dickinson, was a simple woman. She was dedicated to her home and family.
Emily's mother suffered a long term of illness so she took care of her.
Dickinson had an older brother, Austin, who also served as the treasurer for
the college and other civic positions. Austin married Emily's best friend,
Susan Gilbert. Lavinia was Emily's younger sister. She didn't marry anyone so
she stayed in the family house. The three siblings shared a very close
relationship. Their parents didn't have a close relationship with them, but
they did love and care for them. Emily's parents made sure she had a good
education. She went to a primary school for four years then she attended
Amherst Academy from eighteen hundred forty through eighteen hundred
forty-seven. After that she went to Mary Lyon's Female Seminary ( Mount
Holyoke Female Seminary ) for only a year. [ 7.
http://www.gale.com/library/resrcs/poets_cn/dic knbio.htm ] The seminary
insisted on religious as well as intellectual growth. Emily didn't like the
religious environment and was under considerable pressure to become a
professing Christian. [ 4. wysiwyg://5/http://www.
britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/0/0,5716,30830+ 1,00.html ] When it came to
religion, Emily was a skeptic. She returned home so she wouldn't have to face
the religious environment, and her parents asked her to come home. [ 10.
http://www.sappho.com/poetry/ historical/e_*censored*in.html ] Emily began to
write poems at an early age. She had several inspirations in her poem writing.
Emily Bronte was a poet, and after her brother's death she stayed home until
her death. Bronte's book became a big success after her death. [ 8.
http://www.geocities. com/CollegePark/1380/emily.htm] Emily Dickinson life was
similar to hers. Ralph Waldo Emerson was an essayist and a poet. [ 5.
http://encarta. msn.com/find/concise.asp?ti=023d7000 ] These two people's work
help inspired her to write poems. A person with a big impact on Dickinson's
life was Reverend Charles Wadsworth. She met him in Philadelphia on a road
trip she took to see her father with her sister. They became very close
friends, and they wrote letters to each other. [ 9. http://www.kutztown.edu/
faculty/reagan/*censored*inson.html ] Thomas Wentworth Higginson was an author
and a critic. Emily sent her poems to him for criticism. He told her about
anonymous publication for her poems, but advised her not to publish them. [ 4.
wywsiyg://5/http://www.britannica.com/bcom/
eb/article/0/0,5716,30830+1,00.html ] Other correspondences were Dr. and Mrs.
Holland and Samuel Bowles. These two men were the editors of the "Springfield
Republican". Emily also sent these men her poems for criticism. A man with
less influence was a family friend, Judge Otis LordeEmily had a normal
childhood. She was bright, witty, had friends, and went to parties. [ 6.
http://metalab.unc.edu/cheryb.women/Emily- Dickinson-bio.htm ] Dickinson began
her life of seclusion after she returned home from the seminary in eighteen
hundred forty-eight. Emily didn't marry, but she did have several significant
relationships. Emily began to dress in all white, resembling a bride. Around
the age of thirty, she rarely saw anyone. She lived in her room and garden.
She would communicate with people through letters. She only wrote to a select
few. Nearly every letter she wrote would have a poem included. Her family and
a few close friends would stand at her bedroom door, which was ajar, to talk
to her. [ 6. http:// metalab.unc.edu/cheryb.women/Emily-Dickinson- bio.htm ]
During her withdrawal from society, she wrote practically all her poems. She
had three main themes; they were death, love, and nature. [ 9.http://www.
kutztown.edu/faculty/reagan/*censored*inson.html and 12. Notable Poets, volume
one, page 288] Emily wrote many poems for close friend, Susan. In these poems,
she expressed her love for Susan, her desire to hold and kiss her, and her
sorrow being without Susan. These poems and letters have led some people to
think Emily was a lesbian. [ 10. http://www.sappho.com/poetry/historical/
e_*censored*in.html ] Dickinson had her greatest poetic output during the
Civil War. She wrote around eight hundred poems in this time. To go along with
this great output came a stressful period, too. Emily went through great
stress in the year eighteen hundred sixty-two because of the distance and
danger threatened to her friends. Also during this time, she had persistent
eye trouble, which led her in eighteen hundred sixty- four and sixty-five, to
spend several months in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for treatment. After she was
back home in Amherst, she never traveled again, and after the late eighteen
hundred sixtys, she never left the boundaries of the family property. [ 4.
wysiwyg://5/ http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/0/0,5
716,30830+1,00.htm] Her isolation increased because her family and friends
began to die. This is one of her well known poems "Because I could not stop
for Death, He kindly stopped for me; The carriage held but just ourselves And
Immortality We slowly drove, he knew no haste, And I had put away My labor,
and my leisure too, For his civility. We passed the school where children
played, Their lessons scarcely done; We passed the fields of grazing grain, We
passed the setting sun. We paused before a house that seemed A swelling of the
ground; The roof was scarcely visible, The cornice but a mound. Since then 't
is centuries; but each Feels shorter than the day I first surmised the horses'
heads Were toward eternity." Emily wrote between one thousand seven hundred
and two thousand poems. Almost all of her poems were untitled. Somewhere
between seven and ten were published in her lifetime. The reason so few were
published was because her poetry was ahead of its time. Emily's poems were
different from what the people were used to at this time. She had a great
talent for writing poems, but it was not acknowledge until after her death.
Here is another one of her great poems. "Success is counted sweetest By those
who ne'er succeed. To comprehend a nectar Requires sorest need. Not one of all
the purple host Who took the flag to-day Can tell the definition , So clear,
of victory, As he, defeated, dying, On whose forbidden ear The distant strains
of triumph Break, agonized and clear." Emily took her last breath on May
fifteenth, eighteen hundred eighty-six. She died of a kidney dysfunction. [ 5.
http://encarta. msn.com/find/concise.asp?ti=023d7000 ] Her sister, Lavinia,
found some of her poems in a hand sewn booklet in her room. Lavinia wanted to
get all of her sister's poems published. She took them to a family friend,
Mrs. Mabel Loomis Todd, and Thomas Wentworth Higginson to get the poems
published. Since her poems were untitled, they used the first couple of words
or the first line to title the poem. They published one hundred fifteen of her
poems in eighteen hundred ninety. Later they published a second group in
eighteen hundred ninety-one, which was one hundred sixty- six poems. Then in
eighteen hundred ninety-six, Mrs. Todd edited a third series. These two
revised all of Emily's poems; they smoothed the rhymes and meter. When
Dickinson's niece, Martha Dickinson Bianchi, started to publish the poems, she
didn't edit the poems as much. [ 12. Notable Poets, volume one, page 288]
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson lived fifty-six years and half those years she
lived in seclusion. She saw the world in a different view, and she showed it
in her poetry. Emily has been ranked with the America's finest
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