1. Emily Dickinson
A Unique Style

2. Background Born on December 10th 1830
Grew up in Amherst, Massachusetts (NE)
Emily admired and respected her father
She didn’t have a close relationship with her mother until after she had a stroke
She was close with her siblings (older brother, younger sister)
Had a passion for learning

3. Education Amherst Academy Mt. Holyoke Female Seminary
While at school she had a religious crisis, struggling to join the church with doubts
Poems reflect her religious struggle
Educated herself at home
Discovered her passion was poetry

4. The Influential Years
1862: turning point because man whom she loved, (Rev. Charles Wadsworth) moved to California
Wrote 366 poems in that year
When she was in her 30s, she withdrew from the world

5. Dickinson Downhill By middle age, she rarely went out of the house
Frequently wore a white dress (a bride?)
Corresponded with family through letters
Interactive with neighbors on occasion
1884 she fell ill
Died from Bright’s Disease (Kidney Failure) May 15, 1884
Brother rescued some of her poems

6. Dickinson’s Style
Although secluded her poems reveal a life that was, “one of the richest and deepest ever lived on this continent.” (Allen Tate)

7. Characteristics of Dickinson’s Poetry…

8. Allows for pauses to emphasize the rhythm of the poem
Punctuation (Dashes)
Allows for pauses to emphasize the rhythm of the poem

9. Emphasizes words to draw attention to them
Capitalization
Emphasizes words to draw attention to them

10. Assonance or Slant Rhyme
Also to draw attention to certain words or ideas. At that time, an unconventional way to rhyme poetry. Similar to near rhyme but words are not as closely rhymed; usually a rhyme scheme is already in place

11. Rhythm
Usually set up as eight syllables, six syllables, eight syllables (Give or take) for stanza (four lines long). This is why many of her poems can be sung to the theme song of Gilligan’s Island

12. Per stanza, usually it is A B C B
Rhyme Scheme
Per stanza, usually it is A B C B

13. (lots of PERSONIFICATION!)
Metaphor
In poetry that is as short as Dickinson’s, metaphor is powerful. It is an efficient way to produce complex themes in only a few lines
(lots of PERSONIFICATION!)

14. Common Themes
Nature and death. She often would take a simple scene and use it to communicate a more profound message until the last stanza (twist).

15. Example Dickinson Poem:
I like to see it lap the Miles-
And lick the Valleys up-
And stop to feed itself at Tanks-
And then- prodigious step
Around a Pile of Mountains-
And supercilious peer
In Shanties-by the sides of Roads-
And then a Quarry pare

16. Example Dickinson Poem (cont.):
To fit its sides and crawl between
Complaining all the while
In horrid- hooting stanza-
Then chase itself down Hill
And neigh like Boanerges-
Then- prompter than a Star
Stop- docile and omnipotent
At its own stable door-