BIOGRAPHY – Leena Althekair, 11A
Perhaps one of the few poets whose names are quickly recognized, Emily Dickinson is one of the most influential poets to have lived in the United States. Her intricate works of art give the reader a clear image of her beliefs and unique style; however, before the world had known her, she was just poor old Emily.
EARLY LIFE:
Emily was born on December 10th, 1830 in the city of Amherst, Massachusetts. Her family was a prominent, middle-class one whose morals included going to church and providing well education for their children.
She was enrolled and studied in Amherst College, which was founded by her paternal grandfather, Edward Dickinson. Due to Emily’s physically frail nature, she was often absent from school. Eventually she left her education while she was still a teenager.
Fragile diseases were apparently a heritable trait in her family. From Emily’s letters, researchers were able to deduce her mother’s aloof personality and likely depression. At one point, one of her younger cousins died of a disease, and she did not take it well. It was one of the many deaths which hung over her life like a dark cloud.
At a young age, Emily began living in a house with only her sister Lavinia, both of whom had a severe case of agoraphobia – an extreme fear or discomfort from leaving the house.
MENTORS:
Emily has had a deep bond with countable people in her life, the first being her father, Edward. She looked up to him the most and took him as a mentor more than anyone, and it is not surprisingly so. Edward was a lawyer and treasurer of the Amherst college, and in addition a senator, a member of the government’s cabinet, and a US congressman. Her admiration for him was followed only by her brother, William, and her sister, Lavinia.
During her short-termed education, the college principal had been replaced with a young man of his twenties. She quickly earned his respect and developed a bond of understanding and mentorship.
PERSONALITY:
Although one might be inclined to assume Emily’s personality as a closed and hot-tempered due to her works and childhood, the contrary is true.
Emily was an open-minded and friendly person, eager to learn more and meet new people. She had a “unique perspective” of things, which occasionally demonstrated her deep thoughtfulness despite her natural physical disability.
Dickinson was known for being reclusive and prolific, in addition to her immediacy and distinct manner of voicing her beliefs.
POETRY AND STYLE:
Emily’s style is characterized by her unique and unusual use of poetic devices, providing a stark contrast to popular poets of the 19th century. She wrote of what she knew, and from what intrigued her in life. The poetic structure she followed could be found in almost all her poems: short sentences, dashes, slant rhyme (words that don’t rhyme), and writing in quatrains.
Imagery she included in her poems was inspired from nature, religion, law, music, commerce, medicine, and fashion. Many of Dickinson’s poems revolved around flowers she grew, which were suspected to be the source of her treatment.
The themes Dickinson explored could be broadly categorized into wonders of nature, identity of the self, love and faith, pain and grief, and death and immortality, all of which were influenced by her own life experiences.
As for death, it was apparently a key theme for her, as over 500 of her total 1800 poems were about it. The most important one, titled “Because I Could Not Stop for Death”, talks about her meeting a personification of death.
DEATH:
Dickinson passed due to nephritis – a disease involving kidney inflammation – in her hometown Amherst in 1886 at the age of 56. She only published a few poems in her lifetime, and after her death the remaining were found by Lavinia in Emily’s room. Unfortunately, many people edited and modified her original poems before the world got a chance to witness them.
Although Emily Dickinson’s poems have been long written and done, their conspicuous impact radiates until today in American history.
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