Emily Dickinson
"A word is dead when it is said, some say.
I say it just begins to live that day." |
"If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way?"
Emily Dickinson |
Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) was born and lived in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Although born into a successful family with strong community ties, Dickinson 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.
Her poetry
While Dickinson was a prolific private poet, fewer than a dozen of her nearly eighteen hundred poems were published during her lifetime. The work that was published during her 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. Dickinson also often wrote of nature and relationships. Despite being quite reclusive in her later years, Dickinson was known to be social as a young girl and she was persistent in personal correspondence with others throughout her life.
While 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 and was heavily edited. A complete and mostly unaltered collection of her poetry became available for the first time in 1955 when The Poems 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.
Influences
Quite familiar with the Bible, Dickinson was well read in the popular contemporary literature of her day and appreciated the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, whose first book of collected poems had a liberating effect on her. Her brother, Austin, once smuggled Emily a copy of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Kavanagh (they feared her father might disapprove) and a friend lent her Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre in late 1849. William Shakespeare was also a potent influence in her life. Referring to his plays, she wrote to one friend "Why clasp any hand but this?" and to another, "Why is any other book needed?"
Adulthood and seclusion
Although it is not known for sure why Dickinson became so secluded in her later years, many historians believe it was due to a lingering depression, perhaps brought on by the deaths of close friends and relatives. "... some of my friends are gone, and some of my friends are sleeping – sleeping the churchyard sleep – the hour of evening is sad –make the tears come, and I cannot brush them away." At one point, after the death of a beloved niece from Typhoid Fever, Dickinson found her world upended. In the fall of 1884, she wrote that "The Dyings have been too deep for me, and before I could raise my Heart from one, another has come."
A sick mother that needed tending could also have had a profound effect on the young Dickinson. From the mid-1850s, Emily's mother became effectively bedridden with various chronic illnesses until her death in 1882. As her mother continued to decline, Dickinson's domestic responsibilities weighed more heavily upon her and she confined herself within the Homestead.
Dickinson's Lasting Legacy
Withdrawing more and more from the outside world, Emily began in the summer of 1858 what would be her lasting legacy. Reviewing poems she had written previously, she began making clean copies of her work, assembling carefully pieced-together manuscript books. The forty fascicles she created from 1858 through 1865 eventually held nearly eight hundred poems. No one was aware of the existence of these books until after her death. Although she had continue to write in her last years, Dickinson stopped editing and organizing her poems. She also exacted a promise from her sister Lavinia to burn her papers and correspondence, but said nothing of what was to be done with her poetry. Dickinson died in 1886 at the age of 55 from lingering health problems. Lavinia carried through with the promise to burn many of the poet's papers and personal correspondence but salvaged the poems and worked tiredly to get them published.
Modern Day Speculation on Seclusion
The first half of the 1860s, after she had largely withdrawn from social life, proved to be Dickinson's most productive writing period. Modern scholars and researchers are divided as to the cause for Dickinson's withdrawal and extreme seclusion. While she was diagnosed as having "nervous prostration" by a physician during her lifetime, some today believe she may have suffered from illnesses as various as agoraphobia and epilepsy.
Although born into a successful family with strong community ties, Dickinson 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.
Her poetry
While Dickinson was a prolific private poet, fewer than a dozen of her nearly eighteen hundred poems were published during her lifetime. The work that was published during her 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. Dickinson also often wrote of nature and relationships. Despite being quite reclusive in her later years, Dickinson was known to be social as a young girl and she was persistent in personal correspondence with others throughout her life.
While 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 and was heavily edited. A complete and mostly unaltered collection of her poetry became available for the first time in 1955 when The Poems 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.
Influences
Quite familiar with the Bible, Dickinson was well read in the popular contemporary literature of her day and appreciated the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, whose first book of collected poems had a liberating effect on her. Her brother, Austin, once smuggled Emily a copy of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Kavanagh (they feared her father might disapprove) and a friend lent her Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre in late 1849. William Shakespeare was also a potent influence in her life. Referring to his plays, she wrote to one friend "Why clasp any hand but this?" and to another, "Why is any other book needed?"
Adulthood and seclusion
Although it is not known for sure why Dickinson became so secluded in her later years, many historians believe it was due to a lingering depression, perhaps brought on by the deaths of close friends and relatives. "... some of my friends are gone, and some of my friends are sleeping – sleeping the churchyard sleep – the hour of evening is sad –make the tears come, and I cannot brush them away." At one point, after the death of a beloved niece from Typhoid Fever, Dickinson found her world upended. In the fall of 1884, she wrote that "The Dyings have been too deep for me, and before I could raise my Heart from one, another has come."
A sick mother that needed tending could also have had a profound effect on the young Dickinson. From the mid-1850s, Emily's mother became effectively bedridden with various chronic illnesses until her death in 1882. As her mother continued to decline, Dickinson's domestic responsibilities weighed more heavily upon her and she confined herself within the Homestead.
Dickinson's Lasting Legacy
Withdrawing more and more from the outside world, Emily began in the summer of 1858 what would be her lasting legacy. Reviewing poems she had written previously, she began making clean copies of her work, assembling carefully pieced-together manuscript books. The forty fascicles she created from 1858 through 1865 eventually held nearly eight hundred poems. No one was aware of the existence of these books until after her death. Although she had continue to write in her last years, Dickinson stopped editing and organizing her poems. She also exacted a promise from her sister Lavinia to burn her papers and correspondence, but said nothing of what was to be done with her poetry. Dickinson died in 1886 at the age of 55 from lingering health problems. Lavinia carried through with the promise to burn many of the poet's papers and personal correspondence but salvaged the poems and worked tiredly to get them published.
Modern Day Speculation on Seclusion
The first half of the 1860s, after she had largely withdrawn from social life, proved to be Dickinson's most productive writing period. Modern scholars and researchers are divided as to the cause for Dickinson's withdrawal and extreme seclusion. While she was diagnosed as having "nervous prostration" by a physician during her lifetime, some today believe she may have suffered from illnesses as various as agoraphobia and epilepsy.
Recently found, believed to be only the second picture to exist of an adult Emily Dickinson