Emily Dickinson

“This is my letter to the world That never wrote to me”

29 Dec, 20243 min read

Emily Dickinson, or by her full name Emily Elizabeth Dickinson, was an American poet. She lived between the years 1830 and 1886. Although she wasn't much famous during her lifetime, she is one of the most prominent figures of American literature and poetry today. Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts. She studied at the Amherst Academy for seven years. She also attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary for a short period of time before returning home. Although Dickinson was very interested in her education and her life in the school, her life later on was more secluded. She spent most of her time in isolation; she didn't greet guests, socialize, or go out of her bedroom at times. This trend continued later on in her life, and by her adulthood, she was mostly writing poems, gardening, and spending time only with her family and some friends.

As mentioned before, Dickinson was not very popular with her writings during her lifetime. Although she wrote excessively, she did not prefer to publish her writings. Only a letter and ten poems were published while she was still alive. Much of her writings have been published by her friends and family after she passed away. Her work first became public in 1890, and her poems were published as a complete collection in 1955. While her poems were published, they were heavily edited during the process. Her poems were quite a lot in number and had a variety of themes. In her poems, she touched upon: death, immortality, nature, love, the existence of humanity and its conditions, beliefs, identity, and so on. Not only that, but her unique expression and experiments with language and forms also made her stand out from her contemporaries. Even though her style was quite different from her time's, her first publications were a huge success. Her work is often distinct and easily distinguishable by her way of writing. She often uses short lines with slant rhymes and unconventional punctuation. Her works also didn't have titles and were reffered with numbers or called by their first lines. To understand her style better, here are the first stanzas of her poem called Because I could not stop for Death (479).

Some of her other poems include: 'Hope' is the thing with feathers; I am nobody! Who are you? Title divine- is mine! I heard a Fly buzz—when I died—Heart, we will forget him!. Through her lifetime, Dickinson wrote nearly 1800 unique poems with differing themes. She has been one of the most read and most printed poets. With her life, ideas, and poems, she has inspired many even after her lifetime and still continues to be a source of inspiration. Today, she rests eternally in her hometown, where she spent most of her life.