Emily Dickinson, today, is considered one of America’s most original poets. Dickinson ranks alongside Robert Frost as a brilliant poet who influenced the style of American poetry with her innovations. In her lifetime however, only seven of her poems were published. She wrote lyrical poetry and wrote close to 1800 poems.
Emily Dickinson was on December 10, 1830 at Amherst in Massachusetts. Her father, Edward Dickinson was a treasurer at Amherst College, which had been founded by Dickinson’s grandfather, Samuel Dickinson. Dickinson’s father was a strict orthodox Calvinist who was also a member of the United States House of Representatives.
Edward Dickinson was a stern man, which possibly led his wife, Emily to suffer from depression. Dickinson’s mother, Emily was a hardworking woman. Emily never enjoyed a warm relationship with her mother. Dickinson wrote in a letter that she felt as if she never had a mother.
Dickinson received her education at Amherst Academy from 1837 to 1847. When she was 17, Dickinson was set to the Mount Holyoke College where she studied for less than an year, as she felt stifled with the strictness of the religious disciplines that the college observed. Dickinson spent her life in the house in which she was born, she did not venture out much, except to keep in touch with relatives in Connecticut and Boston.
Dickinson kept herself abreast of the issues and affairs by keeping in contact with friends and relatives thorough letters and the visits they made to her house. She also learnt from the books that her brother Austin would get for her. It was around this time that Dickinson started writing. Her earliest known poem was written on March 4, 1850. It was published in 1852 in the Springfield Daily Republican, which published five of the seven poems that were published during her lifetime.
Dickinson’s decision to take up writing poetry was influenced by the religious atmosphere of the 1840’s and 1850’s in Western Massachusetts. Dickinson explored the themes of nature, death, the immortality of the soul etc in her poetry. Her poems often had a hymn like quality. Dickinson was known as the Nun of Amherst because of her reclusive nature and her predilection for wearing white.
Dickinson was encouraged to write by her friend Thomas Higginson, with whom Dickinson maintained correspondence throughout her life. Higginson was the first person to command Afro-American troops in the civil war. Although, Higginson encouraged Dickinson to write, he dissuaded her from publishing her works as he felt that they were written in a style contrary to those that were prevalent then.
Higginson tried to adapt Dickinson’s works to the more romantic styles of the day but Dickinson was uncomfortable with the idea. Modern scholars also feel that Dickinson was unsure of her position as a woman writer in those times and she wished to protect her privacy as well.
Researchers conjecture that Dickinson was disappointed in her relationships. From her correspondences with Charles Wadsworth and Samuel Bowles, it can be surmised that Dickinson probably had a romantic relationship with them. Samuel Bowles was the editor of Springfield Republican and Dickinson has addressed several poems to him.
Awareness of Dickinson’s poetry and the letters she wrote grew only after her death. Dickinson’s sister Lavinia edited 3 volumes of her poems with the help of Thomas Higginson, between 1891 and 1896. Lavinia discovered her sister’s works that consisted of fascicles of her poetry that Dickinson herself had stitched and bound as well as her correspondences.
Thomas Johnson is in large measure responsible for Dickinson’s posthumous fame as a poet. The Poems of Emily Dickinson, edited by Thomas Johnson contains 1775 poems by Dickinson. Johnson had to edit the manuscripts that had several versions and alternatives for a word and sometimes for entire poems. He was assisted in his efforts by Theodora Ward, who also helped Johnson compile The Letters of Emily Dickinson, which contained 1150 letters written by Dickinson. The books were published in 1955 and 1958, respectively.
Dickinson’s writings reveal that she was aware of the works of Keats, Shakespeare, Elizabeth Browning and George Sand. Dickinson’s writings allude frequently to volcanoes and other examples of nature’s fury as well as violence in people. Her writings and her rebellious nature, she stopped going to church after the age of 30, have led feminists to theorize that Dickinson was more than a reclusive poet, she was intellectually aggressive but was held back by her gender.
Dickinson’s fame as a poet rests on the fact that she introduced new styles that were well ahead of her times; she used the elements of slant rhyme and assonance along with simple language to create a melodious effect in her poetry. Dickinson’s poetry is considered to encompass emotions and issues that transcend the barriers of time and are as relevant today as they were in her age. The manner in which she employed punctuations, capitalization and the metaphors she used are today aspects of her style that has inspired many poets.
Dickinson never married. She kept herself busy with writing, gardening and taking care of her brother Austin’s children. Dickinson had to live through the demise of several of her loved ones, her father died in 1874, her mother who was an invalid and was looked after by Dickinson died in 1882. She lost her friends Samuel Bowles and Charles Wadsworth in 1878 and 1882, respectively.
In her later years, Dickinson had developed a friendship with Otis Lord, who was a colleague of her father and her senior by 18 years. Dickinson suffered from Nephritis and died on May 15, 1886 aged 55. Since her death, she has inspired countless poets and feminist writers. Her later writings, particularly her letters, suggest that she had made her peace with God. Dickinson refers to the soul in no less than 141 of her poems.
