Emily Dickinson: Life, Poetry, and Literary Style

Biography and Personal Influences

Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1830. She attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in South Hadley, but returned home after one year. She continued to live in her family home with her younger sister, mother, and father, while her brother and his wife lived next door. Dickinson rarely left her house or received visitors. Those whom she did associate with, however, had a powerful effect on her poetry.

It is speculated that the two most influential people in her life were Reverend Charles Wadsworth, whom she met on a trip to Philadelphia, and her sister-in-law, Susan. In 1860, Wadsworth left for the West Coast, causing Dickinson terrible grief. Afterward, she lived in isolation from the rest of the world. Despite this, she enthusiastically continued correspondences and avidly remained current with popular published works.

One of the correspondences she maintained was with her sister-in-law Susan. Throughout her works, Dickinson wrote many love poems to her, and it is widely accepted that they had a love affair which spanned many years. After Dickinson's death in Amherst in 1886, her brother and his mistress tried to destroy all evidence of this relationship.

She admired female poets such as Elizabeth Barrett Browning, George Eliot, and Helen Hunt Jackson. Her work also appears to have been influenced by her Puritanical upbringing. Dickinson was prolific, yet she was not recognized for her work during her lifetime. Her poetry was published in 1890, four years after her death.

Dickinson's poetry is a reflection of her pain, loneliness, desire, her struggle with religion and society, and love. Her poems are like encapsulated moments of life and inspiration offered to the reader.

Poetic Style and Technique

Dickinson's meter is irregular yet rhythmic. She also demonstrates excellent command of word choice. The language she uses is far from subtle — Dickinson uses words that cut into the reader. She is able to convey complex emotions and situations with very few words. Her disregard for conventional grammar rules and typical flowery verse makes her poems feel more lifelike and immediate.

Close Readings of Key Poems

Dickinson's poem number 14 compares the differences between her relationship with her younger sister and her relationship with her sister-in-law. This poem raises the issue of her highly speculated romantic relationship with Susan Gilbert Dickinson. It is considered a popular topic among feminists and those who believe her family worked to cover the relationship up.

The poem suggests that Dickinson loves Susan but feels very differently toward her than toward her sister. The fifth stanza — "And still her hum, / The years among, / Deceives the butterfly" — suggests that Susan might be deceiving someone, perhaps her husband. Poem number 14 conveys the emotions of a close and secret relationship.

Poem number 249 compares the lust of lovers to stormy nights. The rhythm of the poem is storm-like in itself, and Dickinson juxtaposes the lovers' moorings with those of a ship and the sea. The personification of nature enhances the poem's imagery. As a whole, the poem conveys passion, desire, and lust, suggesting that should Dickinson be with the person referred to only as "thee," they would have nights full of passion — nights that should be considered a "luxury." The third stanza further suggests that holding feelings back is "futile," and that all feelings must ultimately be released or made known.

Dickinson's poem number 280 describes a funeral that takes place inside the author's mind. She traces the breakdown of reality as the funeral progresses. The ending is abrupt, suggesting that the author — teetering on the edge of sanity — finally loses her grip, or ceases to exist. The rhythm of the poem is consistent but unhurried. The words used convey a sense of losing one's mind and how easily that might seem to happen. The poem also implies a possible outcome of death and the feeling of slipping away into nothingness.

Poem 280 paints a picture of what it might feel like at the moment of death, as if we are present at our own funerals. It questions beliefs such as the existence of God and the validity of our constructed reality. The questioning of such fundamental beliefs is a theme that recurs throughout Dickinson's body of work.

Conclusion

Emily Dickinson is one of the most unique writers of her time. Her work is cryptic at times but conveys a great deal of meaning. Her poetry is involved enough to draw the reader in and pique interest, yet brief enough to sustain it. Dickinson's poetry encapsulates a wide range of emotions and the vast weight of intense personal struggle. More than a hundred years after her death, her work remains optimistic and deeply moving.

Works Cited

Dickinson, Emily. The Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson. New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 1993.

Dickinson, Emily. Emily Dickinson's Letters to the World. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002.

Habegger, Alfred. My Wars Are Laid Away in Books: The Life of Emily Dickinson. New York: Random House, Inc., 2001.