Introduction


Emily Dickinson
Known as “The Belle of Amherst,” Emily Dickinson is widely considered one of the most original American poets of the nineteenth century. She wrote hundreds of poems—most of which were not published until her death in 1886—in an unconventional style that revolutionized the genre and continues to challenge readers. Instead of traditional rhyme schemes and punctuation, Dickinson used broken meter, seemingly random capitalization, and numerous dashes to convey complex thoughts and emotions. And in a final break with poetic convention, the majority of her poems were untitled, although quite a few have become well-known by their first lines: “Because I could not stop for death,” “A narrow fellow in the grass,” and “Hope is the thing with feathers.” The subjects of her poems ranged from the inevitability of death to the simple joys of the natural world, and their tone reflected what must have been Dickinson’s own complex emotional range: brooding and joyous, witty and sarcastic, morose and hopeful.

Essential Facts

  1. Dickinson’s bedroom window faced toward a local cemetery in Amherst, Massachusetts. As a young girl, she observed burials on almost a daily basis.
  2. Dickinson attended a female seminary but left after one year. Speculations about the reasons for her departure include homesickness, poor health, and perhaps a refusal to sign a public confession of her faith in Christ.
  3. In 1864, Dickinson visited a doctor in Boston because of an eye condition. He forbade her to read or write. She would never again leave Amherst, but she did begin writing her first poems alone in her room at home.
  4. Both her father and grandfather were successful politicians in Massachusetts, and the Dickinson home frequently welcomed some of the most influential thinkers of the era, including Ralph Waldo Emerson.
  5. Dickinson’s sister, Lavinia, discovered hundreds of unpublished poems after Emily died. Lavinia hired editors to chronologically arrange and publish the work.