Emily Dickinson was a reclusive American poet. She was born on December 10, 1830, in Amherst, Massachusetts. She died in Amherst in 1886. She left school in her teen age and living a reclusive life with her family. There, she secretly created bundles of poetry and wrote hundreds of letters.
Although only a handful of his poems were published in his lifetime, her work contained around 1800 poems, most of which were published after her death. she is now considered one of the towering figures of American literature.
Emily Dickinson Early Life
Emily was born May 15, 1830, in Massachusetts, America in a farming community called Amherst. Emily lived with her parents ( Edward and Emily Norcross ), and her brother Austin and sister Lavinia in a house built by her grandfather, Samuel. But when she was 9 years old they moved house called “The Homestead.”
Emily spent 4 years at primary school and went to Amherst Academy for 7 years. Although she was a very sick child and she was not always able to study, Emily really enjoyed school. She became very good at science so she wrote about flowers, plants and her interest in gardening. Emily left school when she was 15 years old and went to a religious school where they labelled her “without hope,” as she did not believe in God. At this time she was writing about rejecting marriage and religion.
List Of Poems Of Emily Dickinson
How She Became Poet
Emily started reading William Wordsworth and Ralph Emerson’s poetry when she was a teenager. Emily liked to stay indoors, and did not like to stay away from home because she became homesick. In her letters she wrote about her feelings of homesickness when she was away from home.
When a few of Emily’s friends died because the hospitals were not very good, Emily became very sad and stayed at home even more. She wrote poetry about loss and death and did not spend much time with her friends.
When her mother became very ill, Emily spent a lot of time with her in the garden and in their new conservatory in their home where she grew flowers. In 1858 Emily wrote and rewrote her poems. She also started writing about a romantic relationship with an unnamed man.
Emily’s Poetry
By 1865, Emily had written 1,100 poems. Emily showed her poetry to all of her friends, who she hoped would help her with her work. When she showed her work to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, he said she needed to work harder on her poetry. Higginson started helping her to finish her poetry and also helped her in a very sad time. She said that Thomas saved her life by helping her.
When Emily was very ill she had to leave her home. She spent time at a hospital in Boston, and did not want to speak to anybody. Even though she did not like to speak to people, Otis Phillips Lord liked Emily in a romantic way, but they did not get married.
Emily wrote a lot of letters and less poetry as she got older. She stayed at home as she had to look after her mother. During this time, the garden became her main focus.
She wrote about the extreme changes she saw in nature and in society. When Emily’s father, mother, brother, nephew and friends died 1874-1884, Emily wrote about loss but then also became ill and died in 1886.
She did not want to publish any of her work, but when she died, her sister found 1,800 of Emily’s poems, which were published by her friend Thomas Wentworth Higginson in 1890.
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