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emily dickinson (dict)
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Emily DickinsonEmily Dickinson (December 10, 1830 - May 15, 1886), nineteenth century American poet. Although practically unknown in her own lifetime, Dickinson has since come to be regarded as one of the most brilliant and original poets America has ever produced, often being placed alongside such luminaries as Walt Whitman and Robert Frost. Biography Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts to a prominent family known for support of the local educational institutions. Emily's grandfather, Samuel Fowler Dickinson, was one of the founders of Amherst College, and her father, Edward Dickinson, served as lawyer and treasurer for the institution. Emily's father also served in powerful positions on the General Court of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts State Senate, and the United States House of Representatives. Dickinson lived most of her life in the house in which she was born. When she was seventeen, her family sent her to South Hadley Female Academy (which would later become Mount Holyoke College.) Dickinson didnt thrive in the strict religious atmosphere, though, and came back home after less than a year. After that, she never left home again except for a few short trips to visit relatives in Boston, Cambridge, and Connecticut. Edward Dickinson had a reputation as a stern patriarch. When he spoke, his wife, "Trembled, obeyed, and was silent," Emily once wrote. Much of Emily Dickinson's education and knowledge of the world outside Amherst came from forbidden books which were smuggled into the house by her older brother, Austin. For decades, popular wisdom portrayed Dickinson as a recluse peeking out from the attic window and always wearing white. New scholarship suggests a much wider circle of influence than previously thought, including friends and extended family whom Dickinson kept in contact with through letters and their occasional visits to her Amherst home. For a century following her death, immense efforts were made to speculate about whether any men in her life might once have been her lovers. Dozens of men were suggested, but the only one for which significant evidence exists is a friend of her father's, Judge Otis Lord, who was 18 years older than her and whose possible romantic relationship with her, if it existed at all, did not begin until she was over fifty years old. Dickinson died of what would today be called nephritis. Her last words were: "I must go in, for the fog is rising." Poetry and Influence During a religious revival that swept Western Massachusetts during the decades of 1840-50, Dickinson found her vocation as a poet. One of her biographers has suggested that Dickinson thought of becoming a poet in the Biblical terms of Jacob wrestling with the angel. Most of her work is not only reflective of the small moments of what happens around her, but also of the larger battles and themes of what was happening in the larger society. For example, over half of her poems were written during the years of the American Civil War. In the words of one of her most memorable lines, Dickinson's poems tell all the truth but tell it slant: -
- Tell all the Truth but tell it slant—
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- Success in Circuit lies
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- Too bright for our infirm Delight
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- The Truth's superb surprise
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- As Lightning to the Children eased
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- With explanation kind
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- The Truth must dazzle gradually
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- Or everyman be blind—
Dickinson toyed briefly with the idea of having her poems published, even asking Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a literary critic and family friend, for advice. Higginson immediately realized the young poet's talent, but when he tried to "improve" Dickinson's poems, adapting them to the more florid, romantic style popular at the time, Dickinson quickly lost interest in the project. By the time of her death, no more than seven of Dickinson's 1776 poems had been published. Three posthumous collections in the 1890s established her as a powerful eccentric, but it wasn't until the twentieth century that she was truly appreciated as one of the greatest American poets. She was a full generation ahead of poetic trends, pioneering the creation of melody through assonance, dissonance and slant rhyme, and use of simple, witty language. Today, Dickinson is not only considered one of the most accessible poets of all time but one of the most representative. Features of her work that were considered oddities have become signature aspects of her style and form. Dramatic asides, odd capitalization, telegraphic dash punctuation, hymnbook rhythms, multiple voices, and elaborate metaphors have become recognizable to readers across time and translations of her work. Her love of nature can be seen in many of her poems. Numerous poems were also written about death; for example, Tie the Strings to my Life, My Lord: - Tie the strings to my life, my Lord,
- Then I am ready to go!
- Just a look at the horses -
- Rapid! That will do!
- Goodbye to the life I used to live,
- And the world I used to know;
- And kiss the hills for me, just once;
- Now I am ready to go!
See also: Dickinson Homestead See also: Identification of Emily Dickinson Poems External links Dickinson, Emily Dickinson, Emily Dickinson, Emily Dickinson, Emily Dickinson, Emily Dickinson, Emily
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