Emily Dickinson !

Emily Dickinson: a marvel poet unmasked by Via

IN THE YEAR eighteen hundred thirty on December tenth, a girl named Emily was born to a well-to-do family living in Amherst, Massachusetts. She was given a normal name and grew up a normal New England girlhood for the time she lived. She was not a particularly pretty girl but was very sociable and outgoing with other young children her age as a girl. She wasn't shy as some people have believed. She seemed to have a natural knack for writing, her first love, but never seemed to pursue this too far. She was raised a Christian like most puritans were and she did have her god, whom she faithfully prayed to.

She was not an unusual girl for her time; quiet, well-behaved, caring, calm and interested in learning. This wasn't considered odd in a time where your religion and your family duties as well as books was what most people invested their time in. Emily had about the most common name, most common dress, but not the most common personality, she was bright and vivacious. She was only reclusive as she grew into her mid-twenties and found her nose in books more than in parlors with every other gossiping "Kate" or "Lucy". She was just a little bit more intellectual. She was never interested in raising a family or being just the same, she found that she loved poetry. She went to the Amherst Academy and Female Seminary instead of just marrying like an every-day-woman would.

When she returned from her learning experience, however, she found that her social-butterfly brother had sold the family-house. It was a great blow to Emily, she had always loved the house and couldn't bear to see it go. In a few years, when the buyer's family listed the home for sale again, she was first in line and bought it back. She lived there as a single woman 'til the end of her life, writing poetry. She died on May 16th, eighteen hundred eighty six, from Bright's Disease. She was never wed and never had children. She liked animals and the natural beauty of New England over all other things. Scholars have tried to analyze why Emily decided to seclude herself, there are many theories the most likely of which is: she could not find her own theories of the world if she were too involved so she watched it from a distance to understand it.

Emily had few friends and acquaintances, one was named Thomas Higginson. She sent him a few works of poetry during her life which he rejected. He was the first person to publish her poetry after her death, however. Only six or seven poems of hers were published during her life and all of these did not have her consent. There is contriversy over the number because one poem seems to have been published twice. Over all her life time, she is estimated to have written approximitly one thousand seven hundred poems.

Emily Dickinson is the world renowned author of poems like "Hope Is the Thing with Feathers", "There's A Certain Slant of Light", and many others. For more information see: T.W. Higginson, and Helen Hunt Jackson