Emily Dickinson The Belle of Amherst

This is my letter to the world, That never wrote to me,-- The simple news that Nature told, With tender majesty. Her message is committed To hands I cannot see; For love of her, sweet countrymen, Judge tenderly of me!

Biography Born December 10, 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts Father was a lawyer and one of the wealthiest and most respected citizens in the town, as well as a conservative leader of the church Growing up, Dickinson attended Amherst Academy, where she studied a modern curriculum of English and the sciences, as well as Latin, botany and mathematics

Emily (left) with her brother Austin | and sister Lavinia

Biography At 17, began college at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary; she became ill the spring of her first year and did not return. As a young woman, Dickinson used to enjoy buggy rides, parlor games, and other forms of entertainment. However, around 1860, she stopped leaving her home and became a recluse. For the rest of the life, she almost never left home for any reason.

Was Dickinson an Eccentric? Because Dickinson almost never left home, scholars have speculated that she may have been agoraphobic or epileptic. If visitors or friends came to visit, she would only talk to them through a closed door or from behind a folding screen. She often lowered snacks and treats in baskets to neighborhood children from her window, careful never to let them see her face. She almost always wore white.

Emily Dickinson, Daguerreotype by Josiah Gilbert Holland, circa February-April 1848.

The Dickinson Homestead in Amherst, Massachusetts

The Dickinson Homestead in Amherst, Massachusetts (garden)

The Dickinson Homestead in Amherst, Massachusetts (bedroom)

The Dickinson Homestead in Amherst, Massachusetts (Dress)

The Solitary Poet Dickinson spent most of her years in isolation reading and writing poetry. In her family library, she had access to many religious works as well as books by Emerson, other transcendentalists, and current magazines She copied many of her poems into hand- sewn small booklets or “fascicles” and sent them as poetic gifts to family and friends

“I Felt a Funeral in my Brain”

Dickinson’s Publishing Career Dickinson sent poems to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a literary critic and family friend. Higginson recognized her talent, but tried to “improve” the poems, which made Dickinson lose interest. He also advised her against publishing her poems because of their raw form and subject matter. At the time of her death, only seven of her poems had been published.

Thomas Wentworth Higginson

Dickinson in Love? Dickinson never married, although several men played an important role in her life Friendly with Leonard Humphrey, the new principal of Amherst Academy. His death at age 25 in 1850 may have contributed to Dickinson becoming a recluse. She was friends with a young lawyer named Benjamin Franklin Newton, whom she later called an influential mentor

Dickinson in Love? Long correspondence with her editor, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, although he ultimately did not recognize the worth of her poetry Close emotional bond to Charles Wadsworth, a famous Presbyterian minister, whom she had met on her journey home from Washington. Dickinson referred to Wadsworth as “my Clergyman” and “my dearest earthly friend.”

Posthumous Publication Dickinson died on May 15, 1886 of nephritis (kidney disease). Her sister Lavinia found over 1,000 poems in a locked box in her bedroom. The poems were unarranged and only 24 were titled.

Posthumous Publication After her death, her poems were heavily edited and published by Higginson and a family friend, Mabel Loomis Todd. First volume published in First scholarly publication: In 1955, Thomas Johnson produced a collection of over 1700 of Dickinson’s poems in three volumes; he restored her original capitalization and punctuation.

What’s the Difference? BECAUSE I could not stop for Death, He kindly stopped for me; The carriage held but just ourselves And Immortality. We slowly drove, he knew no haste, And I had put away My labor, and my leisure too, For his civility. We passed the school where children played, Their lessons scarcely done; We passed the fields of gazing grain, We passed the setting sun. Because I could not stop for Death, He kindly stopped for me; The carriage held but just ourselves And Immortality. We slowly drove, he knew no haste, And I had put away My labor, and my leisure too, For his civility. We passed the school, where children strove At recess, in the ring; We passed the fields of gazing grain, We passed the setting sun. An excerpt of poem 712, or “Because I could not stop for Death, called “The Chariot” by Higginson and Todd. On the left is the edited version; on the right, the original. Note the major changes in lines 9 and 10.

Dickinson’s Legacy Dickinson is considered influential to poets such as Adrienne Rich, Richard Wilbur, Archibald MacLeish, and William Stafford. Along with Walt Whitman, Dickinson is one of the two giants of American poetry of the 19 th century.

Dickinson’s Poetry: Elements Slant rhyme Enjambment The use of dashes Unconventional capitalization Startling imagery

Dickinson’s Poetry: Topics Personal pain and joy The relationship between self and nature The intensely spiritual The intensely ordinary Confronting death Immortality: “the flood subject” Religion: reverence, rebellion, uncertainty Love

Emily Dickinson ( ) “If I read a book [and] it makes my whole body so cold no fire ever can warm me I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.” -Emily Dickinson

Cover of the first edition of Poems, published in 1890