Emily+Dickinson

[[image:155_EmilyDickinsonSmall.jpg align="right" caption="Emily Dickinson"]]Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson, one of the most original 19th century American poets, was born on December 10, 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts into a prominent household. She was second of three children and the oldest daughter. Her father was an orthodox Calvinist, lawyer, and a treasurer for the local college, and her mother was a cold, hard-working, and depressed woman. Emily once wrote in a letter that she never had a mother because their relationship was so distant.

Dickinson's family was well known for educational and political activity but very quiet and reserved making her shy and uncomfortable in social situations. She attended one year of Female Seminary in South Hadly, then returned home because of severe homesickness. She rarely left her home, and by the 1860s, she lived in almost total physical isolation from the rest of the world. However, she did maintain many correspondences. Although she rarely left her home, people that she never came in contact with had a great impact on her poetry. Her poetry reflects her loneliness, and the speakers of her poems live in a state of want.

It is not known when Dickinson began writing poetry or what happened to the poems of her youth. She convinced herself, after the year 1858, that she had a talent. Publication was not easy, though. She sent many poems and letters to her friend Samuel Bowles, editor of the //Springfield Republican//, for years. He published only two of her poems without her name given.

Dickinson was not publicly recognized during her lifetime. After her death in 1886, her family found forty hand bound volumes of nearly 1,800 of her poems. Her first volume of work was published in 1890 and the last in 1955. She is noted for her unconventional broken rhyming meter and use of dashes and random capitalization as well as her creative use of metaphor and innovative style. She was a prolific letter write and enclosed her poems with letters to friends regularly.

The Civil War years were the most productive for Dickinson. The whole atmosphere of the War and death of close friends in battle greatly influenced her poetry; maybe even fear for her own life. Many close friends of Dickinson and her family were taken away; this was significant to her life. Her late years were mainly spent in mourning.

Though Dickinson shared an intimate relationship with a few people, she never married. She also avoided florid and romantic style. Dickinson died at age 56 of Bight's disease (failure of the kidney). Her doctor suggested stress led to her death. Emily wrote in her young life, "I almost wish there was no Eternity, To think that we must forever live and never cease to be."

I went to heaven, - 'Twas a small town Lit with a ruby, Lathed with down. Stiller than the fields At the full dew, Beautiful as pictures No man drew. People like the moth, Of mechlin, frames, Duties of gossamer, And eider names. Almost contented I could be 'Mong such unique Society.
 * I went to heaven,--**


 * References**

http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/155

http://www.online-literature.com/dickinson/

http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/dickinson/bio.htm

http://www.notablebiographies.com/De-Du/Dickinson-Emily.html