Emily Dickinsons Living Death Essay - 1539 Words

Emily Dickinson was born December 10, 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts to a governing father and an almost non-existent mother. Her father was a lawyer, a legislator and a rigorous Calvinist. Although her father had strong faith in God, Dickinson declined to pronounce herself as a believing Christian in her late teens. In her younger years Dickinson considered herself different because she was shy and sensitive (Emily Dickinson’s Life and Work). Dickinson and her younger sister Lavinia started their education at Amherst Academy. Dickinson spent seven years at the academy. After finishing her final term at the Academy in the August 1847, Dickinson began attending South Hadley Seminary for Women, now know as Mount Holyoke College, about ten†¦show more content†¦According to Masako Takeda, The cause for Dickinson’s seclusion was that she suffered a broken heart by Reverend Charles Wadsworth. Dickinson spent the majority of her days alone in her house until the yea r 1861 when she completely secluded herself and her poetry from the rest of the world. Dickinson’s seclusion from society was the time when she really picked up her writing. June 16, 1874, her father Edward Dickinson died after a stroke. She didn’t attend the funeral; instead she stayed in her room only. This loss pushed her further into seclusion (Takeda). Known for her seclusion from the outer world and introvert nature, Dickinson gave her poetry a unique touch. Dickinson is a major figure in American literature; in her review of the Dickinson Electronic Archives, Martha Smith says, â€Å"She is widely regarded as the quintessential American poet, and her work a foundation upon which twentieth-century American poetry is built† (Smith). This is because of Dickinson’s unique style of writing for her era. Her poems were generally written in short lines and lacked titles. It was uncommon in American literature to use slant rhyme along with unconventional capitalization and punctuation. Only after Emily Dickinson’s death in 1886, did the world know about the over 1700 poems written by her (Emily Dickinson’s Life and Work). The principal of death is fundamental in Emily Dickinson’s poetry. In her work, â€Å"I Felt a Funeral in My Brain† (1862),Show MoreRelatedEssay about Emily dickinson1145 Words   |  5 Pages Emily Dickinson’s poetry powerfully indicates values of society of the time. It does this through its conciseness, its simplicity and its control. Indications of society’s values are seen in many of Dickinsons poems, but they are especially noticeable in ‘It was not Death’, and ‘Because I could not stop for Death’. In Dickinson’s poem ‘It was not Death’, she demonstrates how restricting and stereotyping society can be on an individual, and how society values the conformity of the whole communityRead MoreTheology Leads to Interpretation1336 Words   |  6 PagesEmily Dickinson’s extensive collection of poems on the subject of death can be better understood individually once time has been taken to view her works a s whole. By viewing the works as a whole, it is possible to conclude a likely theological view point of the author and then apply this theology to the individual works in order to improve interpretation. Emily Dickinson’s poem â€Å"Because I could not stop for Death† is one such poem that when viewed individually is open to a wide scope of readingsRead MoreThe MY Wheel Is In The Dark, By Emily Dickinson1228 Words   |  5 PagesThe poems written by Emily Dickinson in the late 1800s construes her feelings about the events occurring in her time period through the extensive amounts of work containing a unique poetic language, grammatical characteristics, and cogent meanings. Released a little after the war between the states, the overall tone of these series of poems abides to despair and downbeat, reflecting the war’s miserable times. Emily Dickinsons series of poems provides a different viewpoint of the feelings peopleRead MoreAmerican Authors Research Project: Emily Dickinson644 Words   |  3 PagesBetween 1858 and 1864 Emily Dickinson wrote over 40 hand bound volumes of nearly 1800 poems, yet during her lifetime only a few were published. Perhaps this is why today we see Dickinson as a highly influential writer, unlike those during her time who did not see the potential. Emily Dickinson wrote towards the end of the romanticism era, but considered more of a realist, ahead of her time and one to shape the new movement. The main characteristic of Romanticism that Dickinson portrays in her writingRead More Death in Emily Dickinsons Because I Could Not Stop for Death, I Heard A Fly Buzz-When I Died, and I Felt A Funeral In My Brain1449 Words   |  6 PagesDeath in Emily Dickinsons Because I Could Not Stop for Death, I Heard A Fly Buzz-When I Died, and I Felt A Funeral In My Brain Emily Dickinsons poems Because I Could Not Stop for Death, I Heard A Fly Buzz-When I Died, and I Felt A Funeral In My Brain all deal with one of lifes few certainties, death. Dickinsons intense curiosity towards mortality was present in much of her work, and is her legacy as a poet. Because I could Not Stop for Death is one of Emily Dickinsons Read MoreIssues of Mortality in Emily Dickinson’s â€Å"I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died595 Words   |  3 PagesWritten in 1862, Emily Dickinson’s â€Å"I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died â€Å"symbolizes the death that Emily saw around her daily. Emily Dickinson wrote the poem around the time of the Civil war which was between the years 1861 through the years 1865.Emily Dickinson was socially awkward, and around the time of her early twenties completely secluded herself from the outside world. Despite the fact that her family had strong political traditions, Emily and her brother seemed uninterested in the war. Very muchRead MoreMortailty and Eternity in Emily Dickinson Poems Essay1541 Words   |  7 PagesEmily Dickinson is the epitome of the modern poet. Her poetry breaks from the traditional style with dashes to separate ideas. Dickinson, also, challenged the religious belief of her time. Growing up as a Puritan in Massachusetts, Emily Dickinson knew the bible, yet as an adult, she questioned that belief. Many of her poems seem focused on death; death of the body, death of the soul, death of the mind. Why was she so intrigued with death? The poems that embody this theme are: â€Å"Success is countedRead MoreEmily Dickinson : The Point When A Reader1749 Words   |  7 PagesMohammed Horieh Introduction to Literature Professor Knoernschild November 27, 2015 Emily Dickinson At the point when a reader hears the name Emily Dickinson, they consider a female who composed verse that has been surely understood for a considerable length of time and years. Much to their dismay that Emily Dickinson established American Literature, and began an entire unrest of verse. The procedure Dickinson used to keep in touch with her verse was at no other time seen and was theRead MoreEdgar Allan Poe and Emily Dickinson Compare and Contrast Essay1596 Words   |  7 PagesEdgar Allan Poe and Emily Dickinson, Compare and Contrast Emily Elizabeth Dickinson and Edgar Allan Poe are two of the biggest poets in American Literature from the 1800s. They had many things in common from their writings about death and sadness, because of their unfortunate losses in life, to the fact that they were both born in Massachusetts. They were also different in many ways. They were different in the way they looked at life and wrote about their experiences from it. While it is obviousRead MoreAnalysis Of This Is My Letter To The World By Emily Dickinson1474 Words   |  6 Pagesfeeling as if she was not worthy. These insecurities are likely the reason why she never published her poems- she had a deeply rooted fear of rejection. Her mental illness consumed her and as said by literary analyst Seth Archer, â€Å"But the fact is, Emily Dickinson lived her life imprisoned by a mental illness no one could make sense of, let alone treat† (Archer 2). But what caused a depression to the extent of this severity? While there is deb ate over what spiraled her into her illness there were several