From the daguerreotype taken at Mount Holyoke, December 1846 or early 1847. The daguerreotype (original French daguerréotype) is an early type of Photograph, developed by Louis Daguerre, in which the image is exposed directly Mount Holyoke College is a liberal arts women's college in South Hadley, Massachusetts. It is the only authenticated portrait of Emily Dickinson later than childhood.

Emily Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. Events 1041 - Empress Zoe of Byzantium elevates her adoptive son to the throne of the Eastern Roman Empire as Michael V For the game see 1830 (board game. Year 1830 ( MDCCCXXX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display Events 1252 - Pope Innocent IV issues the Papal bull Ad exstirpanda, which authorizes but also limits the Year 1886 ( MDCCCLXXXVI) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common The United States of America —commonly referred to as the A poet is a person who writes Poetry. Etymology From the Ancient greek: ποιέω, poieō: "I make or compose" Born in Amherst, Massachusetts to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life. Amherst is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States in the Connecticut River valley After being schooled at the Amherst Academy for seven years in her youth, she spent a short time at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary before retiring to her family's house, the Homestead. Amherst College is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts, USA. Mount Holyoke College is a liberal arts women's college in South Hadley, Massachusetts. Throughout her adult life she rarely traveled outside of Amherst or very far from home. 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.

Dickinson was a prolific private poet, choosing to publish fewer than a dozen of her nearly eighteen hundred poems. ^[1] 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 utilize slant rhyme as well as unconventional capitalization and punctuation. Half rhyme, sometimes called slant, sprung, near rhyme, oblique rhyme, off rhyme or imperfect rhyme is Consonance ^[2] Her poems also tend to deal with themes of death and immortality, two subjects which infused her letters to 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. Thomas Wentworth Higginson ( December 22, 1823 &ndash May 9, 1911) was an American minister Author, Abolitionist Mabel Loomis Todd or Mabel Loomis ( November 10, 1856 &ndash October 14, 1932) was an U 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. ^[3]

Life

Family and early childhood

A drawing of the young Emily Dickinson, age nine. It was made from a portrait featuring Emily, Austin and Lavinia as children.

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born at the Homestead in Amherst, Massachusetts on December 10, 1830 into a prominent, but not opulent, family. Amherst is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States in the Connecticut River valley Events 1041 - Empress Zoe of Byzantium elevates her adoptive son to the throne of the Eastern Roman Empire as Michael V For the game see 1830 (board game. Year 1830 ( MDCCCXXX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display ^[4] Two hundred years earlier, the Dickinsons had arrived in the New World—in the puritan Great Migration—where they prospered. A Puritan of 16th and 17th century England was an associate of any number of religious groups advocating for more "purity" of Worship and Doctrine, The Great Migration may refer to the Winthrop Fleet of 1630, wherein eleven ships delivered 1000 passengers migrating from England to the Massachusetts ^[5] Emily Dickinson's paternal grandfather, Samuel Dickinson, had almost single-handedly founded Amherst College. Amherst College is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts, USA. ^[6] In 1813, he built the Homestead, the large mansion on the town's Main Street that became the focus of Dickinson family life for the better part of a century. ^[7] Samuel Dickinson's eldest son, Edward, was treasurer of Amherst College for nearly forty years, served numerous terms as a State Legislator, and represented the Hampshire district in the United States Congress. Edward Dickinson ( January 1, 1803 &ndash June 16, 1874) was an American politician from Massachusetts. The United States Congress is the bicameral Legislature of the federal government of the United States of America, consisting of two houses On May 6, 1828, he married Emily Norcross from Monson. Events 1527 - Spanish and German troops sack Rome; some consider this the end of the Renaissance. The year 1828 ( MDCCCXXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap Monson (ˈmʌnsən is a town in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. They had three children:

• William Austin (1829–1895), known as Austin, Aust or Awe;
• Emily Elizabeth and;
• Lavinia Norcross (1833–1899), known as Lavinia or Vinnie. William Austin Dickinson ( April 16, 1829 &ndash August 16, 1895) was an American lawyer Lavinia Norcross Dickinson ( February 28, 1833 &ndash August 31, 1899) was the younger sister of famed American poet Emily Dickinson ^[8]

By all accounts, young Emily was a well-behaved girl. On an extended visit to Monson when she was two, Emily's Aunt Lavinia described Emily as "perfectly well & contented—She is a very good child & but little trouble. "^[9] Emily's aunt also noted the girl's affinity for music and her particular talent for the piano, which she called "the moosic". ^[10]

Dickinson attended primary school in a two-story building on Pleasant Street. ^[11] Her education was "ambitiously classical for a Victorian girl". ^[12] Her father wanted his children well-educated and he followed their progress even while away on business. When Emily was seven, he wrote home reminding his children to "keep school, and learn, so as to tell me, when I come home, how many new things you have learned". ^[13] While Emily consistently described her father in a warm manner, her correspondence suggests that her mother was regularly cold and aloof. In a letter to a confidante, Emily wrote she "always ran Home to Awe [Austin] when a child, if anything befell me. He was an awful Mother, but I liked him better than none. "^[14]

On September 7, 1840, Dickinson and her sister Vinnie started together at Amherst Academy, a former boys' school that had opened to female students just two years earlier. Events 1251 BC - A Solar eclipse on this date might mark the birth of legendary Heracles at Thebes Greece. Year 1840 ( MDCCCXL) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year ^[11] At about the same time, her father purchased a house on North Pleasant Street. ^[15] Emily's brother Austin later described this large new home as the "mansion" over which he and Emily presided as "lord and lady" while their parents were absent. ^[16] The house overlooked Amherst's burial ground, described by one local minister as treeless and "forbidding". ^[15]

Teenage years

Dickinson spent seven years at the Academy, taking classes in English and classical literature, Latin, botany, geology, history, "mental philosophy" and arithmetic. English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of Literatures written in the English language (including literatures from the U "Classical literature" redirects here For literature in Classical languages outside the Graeco-Roman sphere see Ancient literature. Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Botany, plant science(s, phytology, or plant biology is a branch of Biology and is the scientific study of plant Life Geology (from Greek γη gê, "earth" and λόγος Logos, "speech" lit History is the study of the past particularly the written record Those who study history as a Profession are called Historians Etymology Arithmetic or arithmetics (from the Greek word αριθμός = number is the oldest and most elementary branch of mathematics used by almost everyone ^[18] She had a few terms off due to illness: the longest absence was in 1845–1846 when she was only enrolled for eleven weeks. ^[19]

Dickinson was troubled from a young age by the "deepening menace" of death, especially the deaths of those who were close to her. When Sophia Holland, her second cousin and a close friend, grew ill from typhus and died in April 1844, Emily was traumatized. Typhus is any of several similar diseases caused by Louse -borne bacteria ^[20] Recalling the incident two years later, Emily wrote that "it seemed to me I should die too if I could not be permitted to watch over her or even look at her face. "^[21] She became so melancholic that her parents sent her to stay with family in Boston to recover. ^[22] With her health and spirits restored, she soon returned to Amherst Academy to continue her studies. ^[23] During this period, she first met people who were to become lifelong friends and correspondents, such as Abiah Root, Abby Wood, Jane Humphrey and Susan Huntington Gilbert (who later married Emily's brother Austin).

In 1845, a religious revival took place in Amherst, resulting in 46 confessions of faith among Dickinson's peers. A Confession of Faith is a statement of Doctrine very similar to a Creed, but usually longer and polemical as well as didactic ^[24] Dickinson wrote to a friend the following year: "I never enjoyed such perfect peace and happiness as the short time in which I felt I had found my savior. "^[25] She went on to say that it was her "greatest pleasure to commune alone with the great God & to feel that he would listen to my prayers". ^[25] The experience did not last: Dickinson never made a formal declaration of faith and attended services regularly for only a few years. ^[26] After her church-going ended, about 1852, she wrote a poem opening: "Some keep the Sabbath going to Church – / I keep it, staying at Home". ^[27]

During the last year of her stay at the Academy, Emily became friendly with Leonard Humphrey, its popular new young principal. Later, she referred to him as "Master", a term that she reserved for the few men in her life whose wisdom, advice, or love she sought. ^[28]

After finishing her final term at the Academy on August 10, 1847, Dickinson began attending Mary Lyon's Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (which later became Mount Holyoke College) in South Hadley, about ten miles (16 km) from Amherst. Events 612 BC - Killing of Sinsharishkun, King of Assyrian Empire Year 1847 ( MDCCCXLVII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common Mary Mason Lyon ( 28 February 1797 - 5 March 1849) was a pioneer in women's education in America Mount Holyoke College is a liberal arts women's college in South Hadley, Massachusetts. Mount Holyoke College is a liberal arts women's college in South Hadley, Massachusetts. South Hadley is a town in Hampshire County Massachusetts, United States ^[29] She was at the Seminary for only ten months. Although she liked the girls at Holyoke, Dickinson made no lasting friendships there. ^[30] The explanations for her brief stay at Holyoke differ considerably: either she was in poor health, her father wanted to have her at home, she rebelled against the evangelical fervor present at the school, she disliked the discipline-minded teachers, or she was simply homesick. ^[31] Whatever the specific reason for leaving Holyoke, her brother Austin appeared on March 25, 1848 to "bring [her] home at all events". Events 1199 - Richard I is wounded by a crossbow bolt while fighting France which leads to his death on April 6. Year 1848 ( MDCCCXLVIII) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap ^[32] Back in Amherst, Dickinson occupied her time with household activities. ^[33] She took up baking for the family and enjoyed attending local events and activities in the budding college town. ^[34]

Early influences and writing

When she was eighteen, Dickinson's family befriended a young attorney by the name of Benjamin Franklin Newton. According to a letter written by Dickinson after Newton's death, he had been "with my Father two years, before going to Worcester – in pursuing his studies, and was much in our family. "^[35] Although their relationship was probably not romantic, Newton was a formative influence and would become the second in a series of older men (after Humphrey) that Dickinson referred to variously as her tutor, preceptor or master. ^[36]

Newton likely introduced her to the writings of William Wordsworth, and his gift to her of Ralph Waldo Emerson's first book of collected poems had a liberating effect. Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25 1803 &ndash April 27 1882 was an American essayist philosopher poet and leader of the Transcendentalist movement in the early 19th century She wrote later that he, "whose name my Father's Law Student taught me, has touched the secret Spring". ^[37] Newton held her in high regard, believing in and recognizing her as a poet. When he was dying of tuberculosis, he wrote to her, saying that he would like to live until she achieved the greatness he foresaw. Tuberculosis (abbreviated as TB for tubercle bacillus or T u' b' erculosis Bacillus --> is a common ^[37] Biographers believe that Dickinson's statement of 1862—"When a little Girl, I had a friend, who taught me Immortality – but venturing too near, himself – he never returned"—refers to Newton. ^[38]

Dickinson was familiar not only with the Bible but also with contemporary popular literature. Etymology According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word bible is from Latin biblia, traced from the same word through Medieval Latin and Late Latin ^[39] Dickinson was probably influenced by Lydia Maria Child's Letters from New York, another gift from Newton^[40] (after reading it, she enthused "This then is a book! And there are more of them!"^[40]). Lydia Maria Child ( February 11 1802 &ndash July 7 1880) was an American Abolitionist, Women's rights activist Her brother smuggled a copy of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Kavanagh into the house for her (because her father might disapprove)^[41] and a friend lent her Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre in late 1849. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27 1807 &ndash March 24 1882 was an American educator and Poet whose works include " Paul Revere's Ride " Charlotte Brontë (ˈbrɒnti (21 April 1816 &ndash 31 March 1855 was a British Novelist, the eldest of the three famous Brontë sisters whose Novels Jane Eyre (dʒeɪn ɛə by Charlotte Brontë, published by Smith Elder & Company of London in 1847, is one of the most influential and ^[42] Jane Eyre's influence cannot be measured, but when Dickinson acquired her first and only dog, a Newfoundland, she named him Carlo after the character St. The Newfoundland is a large usually black breed of Dog originally used as a Working dog in John Rivers' dog. ^[42] William Shakespeare was a potent influence in her life. William Shakespeare ( baptised Referring to his plays, she wrote to one friend "Why clasp any hand but this?" and to another "Why is any other book needed?"^[43]

The Evergreens, the home of Austin and Susan Dickinson, as it appears today

Adulthood and seclusion

In early 1850 Dickinson wrote that "Amherst is alive with fun this winter . . . Oh, a very great town this is!"^[33] Her high spirits soon turned to melancholy after another untimely death. The Amherst Academy principal, Leonard Humphrey, died suddenly of "brain congestion" at age 25. ^[44] Two years after his death, she revealed to her friend Abiah Root the extent of her depression: ". . .  some of my friends are gone, and some of my friends are sleeping – sleeping the churchyard sleep – the hour of evening is sad – it was once my study hour – my master has gone to rest, and the open leaf of the book, and the scholar at school alone, make the tears come, and I cannot brush them away; I would not if I could, for they are the only tribute I can pay the departed Humphrey". ^[28]

During the 1850s, Emily's strongest and most affectionate relationship was with Susan Gilbert. Emily eventually sent her over three hundred letters, more than to any other correspondent, over the course of their friendship. Her missives typically dealt with demands for Sue's affection and the fear of unrequited admiration, but because Sue was often aloof and disagreeable, Emily was continually hurt by what was mostly a tempestuous friendship. ^[45] Sue married Austin in 1856 after a four-year courtship, although their marriage was not a happy one. Edward Dickinson built a house for him and Sue called the Evergreens, which stood on the west side of the Homestead. ^[46]

Supposedly one of only two known daguerreotypes of Emily Dickinson. Made in the 1850s and discovered in 2000 on eBay by Philip F. eBay Inc is an American Internet company that manages eBaycom an Online auction and shopping Website in which people and businesses buy and Gura, its authenticity is questioned. ^[47]

Until 1855, Dickinson had not strayed far from Amherst. That spring, accompanied by her mother and sister, she took one of her longest and farthest trips away from home. ^[48] First, they spent three weeks in Washington, where her father was representing Massachusetts in Congress. Washington DC ( formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D The Massachusetts 10th District is a political constituency that includes parts of the South Shore of Massachusetts and includes all of Cape Cod and the The United States Congress is the bicameral Legislature of the federal government of the United States of America, consisting of two houses Then they went to Philadelphia for two weeks to visit family. Philadelphia (ˌfɪləˈdɛlfiə In Philadelphia, she met Charles Wadsworth, a famous minister of the Arch Street Presbyterian Church, with whom she forged a strong friendship which lasted until his death in 1882. ^[49] Despite only seeing him twice after 1855 (he moved to San Francisco in 1862), she variously referred to him as "my Philadelphia", "my Clergyman", "my dearest earthly friend" and "my Shepherd from 'Little Girl'hood". The City and County of San Francisco is the fourth most populous city ^[50]

From the mid-1850s, Emily's mother became effectively bedridden with various chronic illnesses until her death in 1882. ^[51] Writing to a friend in summer 1858, Emily said that she would visit if she could leave "home, or mother. I do not go out at all, lest father will come and miss me, or miss some little act, which I might forget, should I run away – Mother is much as usual. I Know not what to hope of her". ^[52] As her mother continued to decline, Dickinson's domestic responsibilities weighed heavier upon her and she confined herself within the Homestead. Forty years later, Vinnie stated that because their mother was chronically ill, one of the daughters had to remain always with her. ^[52] Emily took this role as her own, and "finding the life with her books and nature so congenial, continued to live it". ^[52]

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. ^[53] The forty fascicles she created from 1858 through 1865 eventually held nearly eight hundred poems. ^[53] No one was aware of these books' existence until after her death.

In the late 1850s, the Dickinsons befriended Samuel Bowles, the owner and editor-in-chief of the Springfield Republican, and his wife, Mary. Samuel Bowles (III (February 9 1826 - January 16 1878 was an American journalist born in Springfield Massachusetts. The Republican is a newspaper based in Springfield Massachusetts. ^[54] They visited the Dickinsons regularly for years to come. During this time Emily sent him over three dozen letters and nearly fifty poems. ^[55] Their friendship brought out some of her most intense writing and Bowles published a few of her poems in his journal. ^[56]

The first half of the 1860s, after she had largely withdrawn from social life,^[57] proved to be Dickinson's most productive writing period. ^[58]

Is "my Verse . . . alive?"

In April 1862, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a literary critic, radical abolitionist and ex-minister, wrote a lead piece for The Atlantic Monthly entitled "Letter to a Young Contributor". Thomas Wentworth Higginson ( December 22, 1823 &ndash May 9, 1911) was an American minister Author, Abolitionist Abolitionism was a political movement of the 18th and 19th century which sought to make Slavery illegal particularly in the United States and British West Indies The Atlantic (formerly known as The Atlantic Monthly) is an American Magazine founded in Boston in 1857 Higginson's essay, in which he urged aspiring writers to "Charge your style with life", contained practical advice for those wishing to break into print. ^[59] Seeking literary guidance that no one close to her could provide, Dickinson sent him a letter which read in full:^[60]

Thomas Wentworth Higginson in uniform; he was colonel of the First South Carolina Volunteers from 1862 to 1864. Thomas Wentworth Higginson ( December 22, 1823 &ndash May 9, 1911) was an American minister Author, Abolitionist The First South Carolina Volunteers was a Union Army Regiment during the American Civil War.

Mr Higginson,
Are you too deeply occupied to say if my Verse is alive?
The Mind is so near itself – it cannot see, distinctly – and I have none to ask –
Should you think it breathed – and had you the leisure to tell me, I should feel quick gratitude –
If I make the mistake – that you dared to tell me – would give me sincerer honor – toward you –
I enclose my name – asking you, if you please – Sir – to tell me what is true?
That you will not betray me – it is needless to ask – since Honor is it's [sic] own pawn –

The letter was unsigned, but she had included her name on a card and enclosed it in an envelope along with four of her poems. ^[61] He praised her work but suggested that she delay publishing until she had written longer, being unaware that she had already appeared in print. She assured him that publishing was as foreign to her "as Firmament to Fin" but also proposed that "If fame belonged to me, I could not escape her". ^[62]

Dickinson delighted in dramatic self-characterization and mystery in her letters to Higginson. ^[63] She said of herself: "I am small, like the wren, and my hair is bold, like the chestnut bur, and my eyes like the sherry in the glass that the guest leaves. "^[64] She stressed her solitary nature, stating that her only real companions were the hills, the sundown and her dog, Carlo. She also mentioned that whereas her mother did not "care for Thought", her father bought her books, but begged her "not to read them – because he fears they joggle the Mind". ^[65] Dickinson valued his advice, going from calling him "Mr. Higginson" to "Dear friend" as well as signing her letters "Your Gnome" and "Your Scholar". ^[66] His interest in her work certainly provided great moral support; many years later, Dickinson exaggeratedly told Higginson that he had saved her life in 1862. ^[67] They corresponded until her death. ^[68]

The woman in white

In direct opposition to the immense productivity that she displayed in the early 1860s, Dickinson wrote many fewer poems in 1866. ^[69] Beset with personal loss as well as loss of domestic help, it is possible that Dickinson was too overcome to keep up her previous level of writing. ^[70] Carlo died during this time after sixteen years of companionship; Dickinson never owned another dog. Although the household servant of nine years had married and left the Homestead that same year, it was not until 1869 that her family brought in a permanent household servant to replace the old one. ^[71] Emily once again was responsible for chores, including the baking, at which she excelled.

Around this time, Dickinson's behavior began to change. She did not leave the Homestead unless it was absolutely necessary and as early as 1867, she began to talk to visitors from the other side of a door rather than speaking to them face to face. ^[73] She acquired local notoriety; she was rarely seen and when she was, she was usually clothed in white. Dickinson's one surviving article of clothing is a white cotton dress, possibly sewn circa 1878–1882. ^[74] Few of the locals who exchanged messages with Dickinson during her last fifteen years ever saw her in person. ^[75] Austin and his family began to protect Emily's privacy, deciding that she was not to be a subject of discussion with outsiders. ^[76] Despite her physical seclusion, however, Dickinson was socially active and expressive through what makes up two-thirds of her surviving notes and letters. When visitors came to either the Homestead or the Evergreens, she would often leave or send over small gifts of poems or flowers. ^[77] Dickinson also had a good rapport with the children in her life. Mattie Dickinson, the second child of Austin and Sue, later said that "Aunt Emily stood for indulgence. "^[78] MacGregor (Mac) Jenkins, the son of family friends who later wrote a short article in 1891 called "A Child's Recollection of Emily Dickinson", thought of her as always offering support to the neighborhood children. ^[78]

When Higginson urged her to come to Boston in 1868 so that they could formally meet for the first time, she declined, writing: "Could it please your convenience to come so far as Amherst I should be very glad, but I do not cross my Father's ground to any House or town". ^[79] It was not until he came to Amherst in 1870 that they met. Later he referred to her, in the most detailed and vivid physical account of her on record, as "a little plain woman with two smooth bands of reddish hair . . . in a very plain & exquisitely clean white pique & a blue net worsted shawl. "^[80] He also felt that he never was "with any one who drained my nerve power so much. Without touching her, she drew from me. I am glad not to live near her. "^[81]

Posies and poesie

Scholar Judith Farr notes that Dickinson, during her lifetime, "was known more widely as a gardener, perhaps, than as a poet". ^[82] Dickinson had studied botany from the age of nine and had tended the garden at Homestead since age twelve. ^[82] As a teenager, she pieced together a sixty-six page leather-bound herbarium containing 424 pressed flower specimens that she had collected, classified and labeled using the Linnaean system. In Botany, a Herbarium is a collection of preserved Plant specimens Linnaean taxonomy is a method of classifying living things originally devised by (and named for Carolus Linnaeus, although it has changed considerably since his time ^[83] The Homestead garden was well-known and admired locally in its time. It has not survived and Dickinson kept no garden notebooks or plant lists, but a clear impression can be formed from the letters and recollections of friends and family. One niece, for example, remembered "carpets of lily-of-the-valley and pansies, platoons of sweetpeas, hyacinths enough in May to give all the bees of summer dyspepsia. Convallaria majalis, commonly known as the Lily of the Valley or Lily-of-the-Valley, is the only species in the genus Convallaria The pansy or pansy violet s are a large group of plants cultivated as garden Flowers Pansies are derived from Viola tricolor and can include Sweet Pea ( Lathyrus odoratus) is a Flowering plant in the genus Lathyrus in the family Fabaceae ( Legumes, native A Hyacinth is any plant of genus Hyacinthus, which are bulbous Herbs formerly placed in the lily family Liliaceae but now regarded as the There were ribbons of peony hedges and drifts of daffodils in season, marigolds to distraction—a butterfly utopia". For the ancient Balkan region and tribe see Paionia. The peony or paeony ( Paeonia) is the only genus in the Calendula ( Ca-lén-du-la, pot marigold) is a genus of about 12-20 species of annual or perennial Herbaceous ^[84] In particular, Dickinson cultivated scented exotic flowers, writing that she "could inhabit the Spice Isles merely by crossing the dining room to the conservatory, where the plants hang in baskets". This article covers the historical role of the Maluku Islands as a source of spices since early history when the islands where known as the Spice Islands Dickinson would often send her friends bunches of flowers with verses attached, but "they valued the posy more than the poetry". ^[84]

Later life

On June 16, 1874, while in Boston, Edward Dickinson suffered a stroke and died. Events 1487 - Battle of Stoke Field, the last dying breath of the Wars of the Roses. Year 1874 ( MDCCCLXXIV) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common When the simple funeral was held in the Homestead's entrance hall, Emily stayed in her room with the door cracked open. Neither did she attend the memorial service on June 28. Events 1098 - Fighters of the First Crusade defeat Kerbogha of Mosul. ^[85] She wrote to Higginson that her father's "Heart was pure and terrible and I think no other like it exists. "^[86] A year later, on June 15, 1875, Emily's mother also suffered a stroke, which produced a partial lateral paralysis and impaired memory. Events 763 BC - Assyrians record a Solar eclipse that will be used to fix the Chronology of Mesopotamian history Year 1875 ( MDCCCLXXV) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Paralysed redirects here For other uses see xx Paralysed (disambiguation Paralysis is the complete loss of Muscle function Lamenting her mother's increasing physical as well as mental demands, Emily wrote that "Home is so far from Home". ^[87]

Otis Phillips Lord, an elderly judge on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court from Salem, in 1872 or 1873, became an acquaintance of Dickinson's, and her last Master. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ( SJC) is the highest Court in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Salem is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. After the death of Lord's wife in 1877, his friendship with Dickinson probably became a late-life romance though, as their letters were destroyed, this is surmise. ^[89] Dickinson found a kindred soul in Lord, especially in terms of shared literary interests; the few letters which survived contain multiple quotations of Shakespeare's work, including the plays Othello, Antony and Cleopatra, Hamlet and King Lear. William Shakespeare ( baptised Antony and Cleopatra is a Tragedy by William Shakespeare. It was first printed in the First Folio of 1623 Hamlet is a Tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601 King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1603 and 1606 and is considered one of his greatest works In 1880 he gave her Cowden Clarke's Complete Concordance to Shakespeare (1877). ^[90] Dickinson wrote that "While others go to Church, I go to mine, for are you not my Church, and have we not a Hymn that no one knows but us?"^[91] She referred to him as "My lovely Salem"^[92] and they wrote to each other religiously every Sunday. Dickinson looked forward to this day greatly; a surviving fragment of a letter written by her states that "Tuesday is a deeply depressed Day". ^[93]

After being critically ill for several years, Judge Lord died in March 1884. Dickinson referred to him as "our latest Lost". ^[94] Two years before this, on April 1, 1882, Dickinson's "Shepherd from 'Little Girl'hood", Charles Wadsworth, also died after a long illness. Events 527 - Byzantine Emperor Justin I names his nephew Justinian I as co-ruler and successor to the throne Year 1882 ( MDCCCLXXXII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common

Decline and death

Although she continued to write in her last years, Dickinson stopped editing and organizing her poems. She also exacted a promise from her sister Vinnie to burn her papers. ^[95] Vinnie, who also never married, remained at the Homestead until her own death in 1899.

Emily Dickinson's tombstone in the family plot

The 1880s were a difficult time for the remaining Dickinsons. Irreconcilably alienated from his wife, Austin fell in love in 1882 with Mabel Loomis Todd, an Amherst College faculty wife who had recently moved to the area. Mabel Loomis Todd or Mabel Loomis ( November 10, 1856 &ndash October 14, 1932) was an U Todd never met Dickinson but was intrigued by her, referring to her as "a lady whom the people call the Myth". ^[96] Austin distanced himself from his family as his affair continued and his wife became sick with grief. ^[97] Dickinson's mother died on November 14, 1882. Events 1533 - Conquistadors from Spain under the leadership of Francisco Pizarro arrive in Cajamarca, Inca Year 1882 ( MDCCCLXXXII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Five weeks later, Dickinson wrote "We were never intimate . . . while she was our Mother – but Mines in the same Ground meet by tunneling and when she became our Child, the Affection came. "^[98] The next year, Austin and Sue's third and youngest child, Gilbert—Emily's favorite—died of typhoid fever. ^[99]

As death succeeded death, 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. "^[100] That summer she had seen "a great darkness coming" and fainted while baking in the kitchen. She remained unconscious late into the night and weeks of ill health followed. On November 30, 1885, her feebleness and other symptoms were so worrying that Austin canceled a trip to Boston. Events 1700 - Battle of Narva — A Swedish army of 8500 men under Charles XII defeats Year 1885 ( MDCCCLXXXV) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common ^[101] She was confined to her bed for a few months, but managed to send a final burst of letters in the spring. What is thought to be her last letter was sent to her cousins, Louise and Frances Norcross, and simply read: "Little Cousins, Called Back. Emily". ^[102] On May 15, 1886, after several days of worsening symptoms, Emily Dickinson died at the age of 55. Events 1252 - Pope Innocent IV issues the Papal bull Ad exstirpanda, which authorizes but also limits the Year 1886 ( MDCCCLXXXVI) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Austin wrote in his diary that "the day was awful . . . she ceased to breathe that terrible breathing just before the [afternoon] whistle sounded for six. "^[103] Dickinson's chief physician gave the cause of death as Bright's disease and its duration as two and a half years. Bright's disease is a historical classification of kidney diseases that would be described in modern Medicine as acute or chronic Nephritis ^[104]

Dickinson was buried, laid in a white coffin with vanilla-scented heliotrope, a Lady's Slipper orchid and a "knot of blue field violets" placed about it. The Garden Heliotrope ( Heliotropium arborescens) is a highly fragrant perennial plant originally from Peru. Lady Slippers (aka Lady's Slipper, Lady's-slipper, Ladyslipper) is a term used to describe the orchids in the subfamily Cypripedioidea Viola, commonly called Violets, is a Genus of Flowering plants in the family Violaceae, with around 400-500 species distributed ^[84][105] The funeral service, held in the Homestead's library, was simple and short; Higginson, who had only met her twice, read "No Coward Soul Is Mine", a poem by Emily Brontë that had been a favorite of Dickinson's. Emily Jane Brontë (ˈbrɒnti ( July 30, 1818 – December 19, 1848) was a British Novelist and Poet, now best ^[103] At Dickinson's request, her "coffin [was] not driven but carried through fields of buttercups" for burial in the family plot at West Cemetery on Triangle Street. ^[82]

Publication

Despite Dickinson's prolific writing, fewer than a dozen of her poems were published during her lifetime. After her younger sister Vinnie discovered the collection of nearly eighteen hundred poems, Dickinson's first volume was published four years after her death. Until the 1955 publication of Dickinson's Complete Poems by Thomas H. Johnson, her poetry was considerably edited and altered from their manuscript versions. Since 1890 Dickinson has remained continuously in print.

Contemporary

"Safe in their Alabaster Chambers –," entitled "The Sleeping," as it was published in the Springfield Republican in 1862.

A few of Dickinson's poems appeared in Samuel Bowles' Springfield Republican between 1858 and 1868. They were published anonymously and heavily edited, with conventionalized punctuation and formal titles. ^[106] The first poem, "Nobody knows this little rose", may have been published without Dickinson's permission. ^[107] The Republican also published "A narrow Fellow in the Grass" as "The Snake"; "Safe in their Alabaster Chambers –" as "The Sleeping"; and "Blazing in the Gold and quenching in Purple" as "Sunset". ^[108][109] The poem "I taste a liquor never brewed –" is an example of the edited versions, the last two lines in the first stanza were completely rewritten for the sake of conventional rhyme.

Original wording I taste a liquor never brewed – From Tankards scooped in Pearl – Not all the Frankfort Berries Yield such an Alcohol!

Republican version[108] I taste a liquor never brewed – From Tankards scooped in Pearl – Not Frankfort Berries yield the sense Such a delirious whirl!

In 1864, several poems were altered and published in Drum Beat, to raise funds for medical care for Union soldiers in the war. Causes of the war See also Origins of the American Civil War, Timeline of events leading to the American Civil War The coexistence of a slave-owning South ^[110] Another appeared in April 1864 in the Brooklyn Daily Union. ^[111]

In the 1870s, Higginson showed Dickinson's poems to Helen Hunt Jackson, who had coincidentally been at the Academy with Dickinson when they were girls. Thomas Wentworth Higginson ( December 22, 1823 &ndash May 9, 1911) was an American minister Author, Abolitionist Helen Maria Hunt Jackson ( October 18, 1830 - August 12, 1885) was an American Writer best known as the author of ^[112] Jackson was deeply involved in the publishing world, and managed to convince Dickinson to publish her poem "Success is counted sweetest" anonymously in a volume called A Masque of Poets. ^[112] The poem, however, was altered to agree with contemporary taste. It was the last poem published during Dickinson's lifetime.

Posthumous

After Dickinson's death, Vinnie Dickinson kept her promise and burned most of the poet's correspondence. Significantly though, Dickinson had left no instructions about the forty notebooks and loose sheets gathered in a locked chest. ^[113] Vinnie recognized the poems' worth and became obsessed with seeing them published. ^[114] She turned first to her brother's wife and then to Mabel Loomis Todd, her brother's mistress, for assistance. ^[115] A feud ensued, with the manuscripts divided between the Todd and Dickinson houses, preventing complete publication of Dickinson's poetry for more than half a century. ^[116]

The first volume of Dickinson's Poems, edited jointly by Mabel Loomis Todd and T. W. Higginson, appeared in November 1890. ^[118] Although Todd claimed that only essential changes were made, the poems were extensively edited to match punctuation and capitalization to late 19th-century standards, with occasional rewordings to reduce Dickinson's obliquity. ^[119] The first 115-poem volume was a critical and financial success, going through eleven printings in two years. ^[118] Poems: Second Series followed in 1891, running to five editions by 1893; a third series appeared in 1896. One reviewer, in 1892, wrote: "The world will not rest satisfied till every scrap of her writings, letters as well as literature, has been published". ^[120] Two years later, two volumes of Dickinson's letters, heavily edited, appeared. In parallel, Susan Dickinson placed a few of Dickinson's poems in literary magazines such as Scribner's Magazine and The Independent. Scribner's Magazine was first published in January 1887, also by the publishing house of Charles Scribner's Sons, which spent $500000 to compete

Between 1914 and 1929, Dickinson's niece, Martha Dickinson Bianchi, published a new series of collections, including many previously unpublished poems, with similarly normalized punctuation and capitalization. Other volumes edited by Todd and Bianchi followed through the 1930s, gradually making more previously unpublished poems available.

The first scholarly publication came in 1955 with a complete new three-volume set edited by Thomas H. Johnson. It formed the basis of all later Dickinson scholarship. For the first time, the poems were printed very nearly as Dickinson had left them in her manuscripts. ^[121] They were untitled, only numbered in an approximate chronological sequence, strewn with dashes and irregularly capitalized, and often extremely elliptical in their language. In Mathematics, an ellipse (from the Greek ἔλλειψις literally absence) is a Conic section, the locus of points in a ^[122] Three years later, Johnson edited and published, along with Theodora Ward, a complete collection of Dickinson's letters.

Poetry

See: Emily Dickinson at Wikisource for complete poetic works

Dickinson's poems generally fall into three distinct periods, the works in each period having certain general characters in common.

• Pre-1861. These are often conventional and sentimental in nature. Sentimentalism (literally appealing to the Sentiments, as a literary and political discourse has occurred much in the literary traditions of all regions in the world and is ^[123] Thomas H. Johnson, who later published The Poems of Emily Dickinson, was able to date only five of Dickinson's poems before 1858. ^[124] Two of these are mock valentines done in an ornate and humorous style, and two others are conventional lyrics, one of which is about missing her brother Austin. The fifth poem, which begins "I have a Bird in spring", conveys her grief over the feared loss of friendship and was sent to her friend Sue Gilbert. ^[124]
• 1861–1865. This was her most creative period—these poems are more vigorous and emotional. Johnson estimated that she composed 86 poems in 1861, 366 in 1862, 141 in 1863, and 174 in 1864. He also believed that this is when she fully developed her themes of life and death. ^[125]
• Post-1866. It is estimated that two-thirds of the entire body of her poetry was written before this year. ^[125]

Structure and syntax

Dickinson's handwritten manuscript of her poem "Wild Nights – Wild Nights!"

The extensive use of dashes and unconventional capitalization in Dickinson's manuscripts, and the idiosyncratic vocabulary and imagery, combine to create a body of work that is "far more various in its styles and forms than is commonly supposed". A dash is a Punctuation mark It is longer than a Hyphen and is used differently Capitalization (or capitalisation &mdash see spelling differences) is writing a word with its first letter as a Majuscule (upper case letter Idiosyncrasy, from Greek ιδιοσυγκρασία idiosunkrasia, "a peculiar temperament" "habit of body" ( idios "one's own" ^[126][2] She did not write in traditional iambic pentameter (a convention of English-speaking poetry for centuries), and did not even use a five-foot line. Iambic pentameter is a type of meter that is used in Poetry and Drama. In verse, many meters use a foot as the basic unit in their description of the underlying rhythm of a poem Her line lengths vary from four syllables or two feet to often eight syllables or four feet. ^[127] Her frequent use of approximate or slant rhyme attracted attention since her work first appeared in print. Half rhyme, sometimes called slant, sprung, near rhyme, oblique rhyme, off rhyme or imperfect rhyme is Consonance ^[127] Her poems typically begin with a declaration or definition in the first line ("The fact that Earth is Heaven"), which is followed by a metaphorical change of the original premise in the second line ("Whether Heaven is Heaven or not"). ^[128] Dickinson's poems can easily be set to music because of the frequent use of rhyme and free verse. Free verse is a term describing various styles of Poetry that are written without using strict meter or Rhyme, but that still are recognizable as poetry Written for the most part in common meter, they can also be set to songs that use the same alternating lines of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter. Common metre, abbreviated C M, is a poetic meter consisting of four lines which alternate between iambic tetrametre (four metrical feet per line with Iambic tetrameter is a meter in Poetry. It refers to a line consisting of four iambic feet. Iambic trimeter is a meter consisting of three Iambic units per line ^[129] Dickinson scholar Anthony Hecht finds resonances not only with songs but also with psalms and riddles, citing the following example: "Who is the East? / The Yellow Man / Who may be Purple if he can / That carries the Sun. Psalms ( Hebrew: Tehilim, תהילים, or "praises" is a book of the Hebrew Bible (the Christian Old Testament) included A riddle is a Statement or Question having a double or veiled meaning put forth as a Puzzle to be solved  / Who is the West? / The Purple Man / Who may be Yellow if He can / That lets Him out again. "^[126]

Late 20th-century scholars are "deeply interested" by Dickinson's highly individual use of punctuation and lineation (line lengths and line breaks). ^[113] Following the publication of one of the few poems that appeared in her lifetime – "A narrow Fellow in the Grass", published as "The Snake" in the Republican – Dickinson complained that the edited punctuation (an added comma and full stop) altered the meaning of the entire poem. ^[108]

Original wording A narrow Fellow in the Grass Occasionally rides – You may have met Him – did you not His notice sudden is –

Republican version[108] A narrow Fellow in the Grass Occasionally rides – You may have met Him – did you not, His notice sudden is.

As Farr points out, "snakes instantly notice you"; Dickinson's version captures the "breathless immediacy" of the encounter; and The Republican's punctuation renders "her lines more commonplace". ^[113] With the increasingly close focus on Dickinson's structures and syntax has come a growing appreciation that they are "aesthetically based". ^[113] Although Johnson's landmark 1955 edition of poems was relatively unaltered from the original, later scholars critiqued it for deviating from the style and layout of Dickinson's manuscripts. Meaningful distinctions, these scholars assert, can be drawn from varying lengths and angles of dash, and differing arrangements of text on the page. ^[130] Several volumes have attempted to render Dickinson's handwritten dashes using many typographic symbols of varying length and angle. R. W. Franklin's 1998 variorum edition of the poems provided alternate wordings to those chosen by Johnson, in a more limited editorial intervention. Franklin also used typeset dashes of varying length to approximate the manuscripts' dashes more closely. ^[121]

Major themes

Dickinson left no formal statement of her aesthetic intentions and, because of the variety of her themes, her work does not fit conveniently into any one genre. She has been regarded, alongside Emerson (whose poems Dickinson admired), as a Transcendentalist. Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25 1803 &ndash April 27 1882 was an American essayist philosopher poet and leader of the Transcendentalist movement in the early 19th century Transcendentalism was a group of new ideas in Literature, Religion, Culture, and Philosophy that emerged in New England in the ^[131] However, Farr disagrees with this analysis saying that Dickinson's "relentlessly measuring mind . . . deflates the airy elevation of the Transcendental". ^[132] Apart from the major themes discussed below, Dickinson's poetry frequently utilizes humor, puns, irony and satire. Irony is a literary or Rhetorical device, in which there is an incongruity or Discordance between what one says or does and what one means or Satire is often strictly defined as a literary genre or form; although in practice it is also found in the graphic and Performing arts In satire human ^[133]

• Flowers and gardens. Farr notes that Dickinson's "poems and letters almost wholly concern flowers" and that allusions to gardens often refer to an "imaginative realm . . . wherein flowers [are] often emblems for actions and emotions". ^[134] She associates some flowers, like gentians and anemones, with youth and humility; others with prudence and insight. Gentiana is a genus of Flowering plants belonging to the Gentian family ( Gentianaceae) tribe Gentianeae and monophyletic subtribe Gentianinae Anemone ( A-ne-mó-ne, from the Gr Άνεμος wind is a Genus of about 120 Species of flowering plants in the ^[134] Her poems were often sent to friends with accompanying letters and nosegays. A nosegay, posey (or posy) Flower bouquet or tussie-mussie is a small bunch of Flowers typically given as a gift ^[134] Farr notes that one of Dickinson's earlier poems, written about 1859, appears to "conflate her poetry itself with the posies": "My nosegays are for Captives – / Dim – long expectant eyes – / Fingers denied the plucking, / Patient till Paradise – / To such, if they sh'd whisper / Of morning and the moor – / They bear no other errand, / And I, no other prayer". ^[134]
• The Master poems. Dickinson left a large number of poems addressed to "Signor", "Sir" and "Master", who is characterized as Dickinson's "lover for all eternity". ^[135] These confessional poems are often "searing in their self-inquiry" and "harrowing to the reader" and typically take their metaphors from texts and paintings of Dickinson's day. ^[135] The Dickinson family themselves believed these poems were addressed to actual individuals but this view is frequently rejected by scholars. Farr, for example, contends that the Master is an unattainable composite figure, "human, with specific characteristics, but godlike" and speculates that Master may be a "kind of Christian muse". ^[135]
• Morbidity. Dickinson's poems reflect her "early and lifelong fascination" with illness, dying and death. ^[136] Perhaps surprisingly for a New England spinster, her poems allude to death by many methods: "crucifixion, drowning, hanging, suffocation, freezing, premature burial, shooting, stabbing and guillotinage". ^[136] She reserved her sharpest insights into the "death blow aimed by God" and the "funeral in the brain", often reinforced by images of thirst and starvation. Dickinson scholar Vivian Pollak considers these references an autobiographical reflection of Dickinson's "thirsting-starving persona", an outward expression of her needy self-image as small, thin and frail. ^[136] Dickinson's most psychologically complex poems explore the theme that the loss of hunger for life causes the death of self and place this at "the interface of murder and suicide". ^[136]
• Gospel poems. Throughout her life, Dickinson wrote poems reflecting a preoccupation with the teachings of Jesus Christ and, indeed, many are addressed to him. ^[137] She stresses the Gospels' contemporary pertinence and recreates them, often with "wit and American colloquial language". ^[137] Scholar Dorothy Oberhaus finds that the "salient feature uniting Christian poets . . . is their reverential attention to the life of Jesus Christ" and contends that Dickinson's deep structures place her in the "poetic tradition of Christian devotion" alongside Hopkins, Eliot and Auden. Gerard Manley Hopkins ( 28 July 1844 – 8 June, 1889) was an English Poet, Roman Catholic convert and Thomas Stearns Eliot, OM (September 26 1888 – January 4 1965 was a poet Dramatist, and Literary critic. Wystan Hugh Auden (21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973 ˈwɪstən ˈhjuː ˈɔːdən who signed his works W ^[137] In a Nativity poem, Dickinson combines lightness and wit to revisit an ancient theme: "The Savior must have been / A docile Gentleman – / To come so far so cold a Day / For little Fellowmen / The Road to Bethlehem / Since He and I were Boys / Was leveled, but for that twould be / A rugged billion Miles –". ^[137]
• The Undiscovered Continent. Academic Suzanne Juhasz considers that Dickinson saw the mind and spirit as tangible visitable places and that for much of her life she lived within them. ^[138] Often, this intensely private place is referred to as the "undiscovered continent" and the "landscape of the spirit" and embellished with nature imagery. At other times, the imagery is darker and forbidding—castles or prisons, complete with corridors and rooms—to create a dwelling place of "oneself" where one resides with one's other selves. ^[138] An example that brings together many of these ideas is: "Me from Myself – to banish – / Had I Art – / Impregnable my Fortress / Unto All Heart – / But since myself—assault Me – / How have I peace / Except by subjugating / Consciousness.  / And since We're mutual Monarch / How this be / Except by Abdication – / Me – of Me?". ^[138]

Reception

Dickinson wrote and sent this poem ("A Route to Evanescence") to Thomas Higginson in 1880.

The surge of posthumous publication gave Dickinson's poetry its first public exposure. Backed by Higginson and with a favorable notice from William Dean Howells, an editor of Harper's Magazine, the poetry received mixed reviews after it was first published in 1890. William Dean Howells ( March 1 1837 – May 11 1920) was an American realist author and literary critic Harper's Magazine (also Harper's) is a monthly general-interest Magazine of literature politics culture finance and the arts Higginson himself stated in his preface to the first edition of Dickinson's published work that the poetry's quality "is that of extraordinary grasp and insight". ^[139] Maurice Thompson, who was literary editor of The Independent for twelve years, noted in 1891 that her poetry had "a strange mixture of rare individuality and originality". James Maurice Thompson (b September 9 1844, Fairfield Indiana - d ^[140] Some critics hailed Dickinson's effort, but disapproved of her unusual non-traditional style. Andrew Lang, a British writer, dismissed Dickinson's work, stating that "if poetry is to exist at all, it really must have form and grammar, and must rhyme when it professes to rhyme. For the former National Basketball Association player see Andrew Lang (basketball. The wisdom of the ages and the nature of man insist on so much". ^[141] Thomas Bailey Aldrich, a poet and novelist, equally dismissed Dickinson's poetic technique in The Atlantic Monthly in January 1892: "It is plain that Miss Dickinson possessed an extremely unconventional and grotesque fancy. Thomas Bailey Aldrich ( 11 November 1836 – 19 March 1907) was a Poet, Novelist, traveler and editor born in The Atlantic (formerly known as The Atlantic Monthly) is an American Magazine founded in Boston in 1857 When used in conversation grotesque commonly means strange fantastic ugly or bizarre and thus is often used to describe weird shapes and distorted forms such as Halloween She was deeply tinged by the mysticism of Blake, and strongly influenced by the mannerism of Emerson . William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827 was an English poet, painter, and Printmaker. Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25 1803 &ndash April 27 1882 was an American essayist philosopher poet and leader of the Transcendentalist movement in the early 19th century . . But the incoherence and formlessness of her — versicles are fatal . . . an eccentric, dreamy, half-educated recluse in an out-of-the-way New England village (or anywhere else) cannot with impunity set at defiance the laws of gravitation and grammar". ^[142]

Critical attention to Dickinson's poetry was meager from 1897 to the early 1920s. ^[143] By the start of the 20th century, interest in her poetry became broader in scope and some critics began to consider Dickinson as essentially modern. Modernism describes an array of Cultural movements rooted in the changes in Western society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Rather than seeing Dickinson's poetic styling as a result of lack of knowledge or skill, modern critics believed the irregularities were consciously artistic. ^[144] In a 1915 essay, Elizabeth Shepley Sergeant called the poet's inspiration "daring" and named her "one of the rarest flowers the sterner New England land ever bore". ^[145] With the growing popularity of modernist poetry in the 1920s, Dickinson's failure to conform to 19th-century poetic form was no longer surprising nor distasteful to new generations of readers. Modernist poetry in English is generally considered to have emerged in the early years of the 20th century with the appearance of the Imagists. Dickinson was suddenly referred to by various critics as a great woman poet, and a cult following began to form. This article does not discuss "cult" in the original sense of "veneration" or "religious practice" for that usage see Cult (religious practice ^[146] R. P. Blackmur, in an attempt to focus and clarify the major claims for and against the poet's greatness, wrote in a landmark 1937 critical essay: ". Richard Palmer Blackmur ( January 21, 1904 – February 2, 1965) was an American Literary critic and Poet. . . she was a private poet who wrote as indefatigably as some women cook or knit. Her gift for words and the cultural predicament of her time drove her to poetry instead of antimacassars . An antimacassar is a small cloth placed over the backs or arms of chairs or the head or cushions of a sofa to prevent soiling of the permanent fabric . . She came, as Mr. Tate says, at the right time for one kind of poetry: the poetry of sophisticated, eccentric vision. "^[147]

The second wave of feminism created greater cultural sympathy for her as a female poet. Second-wave feminism refers to a period of Feminist activity which began during the 1960s and lasted through the late 1970s Feminism is a discourse that involves various movements theories, and Philosophies which are concerned with the issue of Gender difference, advocate In the first collection of critical essays on Dickinson from a female perspective, she is heralded as the greatest woman poet in the English language. ^[148] Biographers and theorists of the past tended to separate Dickinson's roles as a woman and a poet. For example, George Whicher wrote in his 1952 book This Was a Poet: A Critical Biography of Emily Dickinson, "Perhaps as a poet [Dickinson] could find the fulfillment she had missed as a woman. " Feminist criticism, on the other hand, declares that there is a necessary and powerful conjunction between Dickinson being a woman and a poet. ^[149] Adrienne Rich theorized in "Vesuvius at Home: The Power of Emily Dickinson" (1976) that Dickinson's identity as a woman poet brought her power, making her "neither eccentric nor quaint; she was determined to survive, to use her powers, to practice necessary economics. "^[150] Similarly, some scholars question the poet's sexuality, theorizing that the numerous letters and poems that were dedicated to Susan Gilbert Dickinson indicate a lesbian romance, and speculating about how this may have influenced her poetry. ^[151]

Legacy

Emily Dickinson is now considered a powerful and persistent figure in American culture. ^[152] Although much of the early reception concentrated on Dickinson's eccentric and secluded nature, she has become widely acknowledged as an innovative pre-modernist poet. ^[153] As early as 1891, William Dean Howells wrote that "If nothing else had come out of our life but this strange poetry we should feel that in the work of Emily Dickinson, America, or New England rather, had made a distinctive addition to the literature of the world, and could not be left out of any record of it. "^[154] Twentieth-century critic Harold Bloom has placed her alongside Walt Whitman, Wallace Stevens, Robert Frost, T. S. Eliot and Hart Crane as a major American poet. Harold Bloom' (born July 11, 1930) is a Literary critic. Bloom defended 19th-century Romantic poets at a time when their reputations Walter Whitman (May 31 1819 &ndash March 26 1892 was an American poet, Essayist journalist, and humanist. Wallace Stevens ( October 2, 1879 – August 2, 1955) was a major American Modernist Poet. Robert Lee Frost (March 26 1874 &ndash January 29 1963 was an American Poet. Thomas Stearns Eliot, OM (September 26 1888 – January 4 1965 was a poet Dramatist, and Literary critic. Harold Hart Crane ( July 21, 1899 – April 27, 1932) was an American Poet. ^[3]

The Dickinson Homestead as it appears today. In 2003 it was made into the Emily Dickinson Museum. The Emily Dickinson Museum is a Historic house museum consisting of two houses the Dickinson Homestead (also known as Emily Dickinson Home or

Dickinson is taught in American literature and poetry classes in the United States from middle school to college. American literature refers to written or literary work produced in the area of the United States and Colonial America. The poetry of the United States arose first during its beginnings as the constitutionally unified Thirteen colonies (although before this a strong Her poetry is frequently anthologized and has been used as texts for art songs by composers such as Aaron Copland, Nick Peros, John Adams and Michael Tilson Thomas. Aaron Copland (November 14 1900 &ndash December 2 1990 was an American Composer of concert and film music as well as an accomplished Pianist. Nick Peros (born March 17, 1963) is a Canadian classical composer with an extensive catalogue of works that includes symphonic orchestral choral vocal John Coolidge Adams (born February 15 1947 is an American Composer with strong roots in minimalism. Michael Tilson Thomas (b December 21, 1944) is an American conductor, pianist and Composer. ^[155] Several schools, such as the Emily Dickinson Elementary School in Bozeman, Montana,^[156] have been established in her name. Bozeman is a city in and the County seat of Gallatin County, Montana, United States, in the southwestern part of the state A few literary journals—including The Emily Dickinson Journal, the official publication of the Emily Dickinson International Society—have been founded to examine her work. The Emily Dickinson Journal is an Academic journal founded in 1991 and is the official publication of the Emily Dickinson International Society ^[157] The Amherst Jones Library's Special Collections department has an Emily Dickinson Collection consisting of approximately seven thousand items, including original manuscript poems and letters, family correspondence, scholarly articles and books, newspaper clippings, theses, plays, photographs and contemporary artwork and prints. ^[158] Dickinson's herbarium, which is now held in the Houghton Library at Harvard University, was published in 2006 as Emily Dickinson's Herbarium by Harvard University Press. In Botany, a Herbarium is a collection of preserved Plant specimens Harvard University Press ( HUP) is a Publishing house, a division of Harvard University, that is highly respected in Academic publishing. In 1965, in recognition of Dickinson's growing stature as a poet, the Homestead was purchased by Amherst College. It opened to the public for tours, and also served as a faculty residence for many years. The Emily Dickinson Museum was created in 2003 when ownership of the Evergreens, which had been occupied by Dickinson family heirs until 1988, was transferred to the college. The Emily Dickinson Museum is a Historic house museum consisting of two houses the Dickinson Homestead (also known as Emily Dickinson Home or ^[159]

References

Notes

Editions of poetry

• Franklin, R. W. (ed). 1999. The Poems of Emily Dickinson. Cambridge: Belknap Press. ISBN 0674676246
• Johnston, Thomas H. (ed). 1960. The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Boston: Little, Brown & Co.

Secondary sources

• Bianchi, Martha Dickinson. 1970. Emily Dickinson Face to Face: Unpublished Letters with Notes and Reminiscences. Hamden, Conn. : Archon Books.
• Blacke, Caesar R. (ed). 1964. The Recognition of Emily Dickinson: Selected Criticism Since 1890. Ed. Caesar R. Blake. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
• Bloom, Harold. Harold Bloom' (born July 11, 1930) is a Literary critic. Bloom defended 19th-century Romantic poets at a time when their reputations 1999. Emily Dickinson. Broomall, PA: Chelsea House Publishers. ISBN 0791051064.
• Buckingham, Willis J. (ed). 1989. Emily Dickinson's Reception in the 1890s: A Documentary History. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. ISBN 0822936046.
• Crumbley, Paul. 1997. Inflections of the Pen: Dash and Voice in Emily Dickinson. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 081311988x.
• Farr, Judith (ed). 1996. Emily Dickinson: A Collection of Critical Essays. Prentice Hall International Paperback Editions. ISBN 978-0130335241.
• Farr, Judith. 2005. The Gardens of Emily Dickinson. Cambridge, Massachusetts & London, England: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0674018297.
• Ford, Thomas W. 1966. Heaven Beguiles the Tired: Death in the Poetry of Emily Dickinson. University of Alabama Press.
• Gura, Philip F. 2004. "How I Met and Dated Miss Emily Dickinson: An Adventure on eBay", Common-place, The Interactive Journal of Early American Life, Inc. 4( 2).
• Habegger, Alfred. 2001. My Wars Are Laid Away in Books: The Life of Emily Dickinson. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0679449867.
• Hecht, Anthony. 1996. "The Riddles of Emily Dickinson" in Farr (1996) 149–162.
• Juhasz, Suzanne (ed). 1983. Feminist Critics Read Emily Dickinson. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0253321700.
• Juhasz, Suzanne. 1996. "The Landscape of the Spirit" in Farr (1996) 130–140.
• Knapp, Bettina L. 1989. Emily Dickinson. New York: Continuum Publishing.
• Martin, Wendy (ed). 2002. The Cambridge Companion to Emily Dickinson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521001188.
• McNeil, Helen. 1986. Emily Dickinson. London: Virago Press. ISBN 0394747666
• Oberhaus, Dorothy Huff. 1996. " 'Tender pioneer': Emily Dickinson's Poems on the Life of Christ" in Farr (1996) 105–119.
• Parker, Peter. 2007. "New Feet Within My Garden Go: Emily Dickinson's Herbarium", The Daily Telegraph, June 29, 2007. For "The Daily Telegraph" in Australia see The Daily Telegraph (Australia. Events 512 - A Solar eclipse is recorded by a monastic chronicler in Ireland. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Retrieved: January 18, 2008. Events 350 - Generallus Magnentius deposes Roman Emperor Constans and proclaims himself Emperor 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common
• Pickard, John B. 1967. Emily Dickinson: An Introduction and Interpretation. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
• Pollak, Vivian R. 1996. "Thirst and Starvation in Emily Dickinson's Poetry" in Farr (1996) 62–75.
• Sewall, Richard B.. Richard B Sewall ( 1908 - 16 April 2003) was a professor of English at Yale University, and author of the influential works The Life 1974. The Life of Emily Dickinson. New York: Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux. ISBN 0674530802.
• Smith, Martha Nell. 1992. Rowing in Eden: Rereading Emily Dickinson. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press. ISBN 0292776667
• Stocks, Kenneth. 1988. Emily Dickinson and the Modern Consciousness: A Poet of Our Time. New York: St. Martin's Press.
• Walsh, John Evangelist. 1971. The Hidden Life of Emily Dickinson. New York: Simon and Schuster.
• Wells, Anna Mary. 1929. "Early Criticism of Emily Dickinson", American Literature, Vol. 1, No. 3. (Nov. , 1929).
• Wolff, Cynthia Griffin. 1998. Emily Dickinson. Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0394544188.

External links

• Works by Emily Dickinson at Project Gutenberg
• Dickinson Electronic Archives
• Emily Dickinson Museum The Homestead and the Evergreens, Amherst, Massachusetts
• Emily Dickinson at Encyclopædia Britannica
• Emily Dickinson International Society