Writer of 1800 poems
Born on December 10, 1830, Emily Dickinson was little-known during her life. She has since been regarded as one of the most important figures in American poetry. She was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, into a prominent family with strong ties to its community. Two hundred years earlier, Emily’s patrilineal ancestors had arrived in the New World in the Puritan Great Migration.
She studied at the Amherst Academy, taking classes in English and classical literature, Latin, botany, geology, history, "mental philosophy," and arithmetic. After that, she lived much of her life in isolation. Considered an eccentric by locals, she never married, developed a penchant for white clothing, was known for her reluctance to greet guests, and rarely even left her bedroom.
“I do not go out at all, lest father come and miss me, or miss some little act, which I might forget, should I run away.”
By all accounts, young Dickinson was a very bright, scholarly, well-behaved girl – a perfectly contented child who was little trouble to anyone. Emily had an affinity for music with a particular talent for the piano.
Not a single person of those acquainted with her during her lifetime would have ever comprehended that she somewhat secretly wrote nearly 1800 poems? 1800! They were all unique for her era, typically lacked titles, and were unconventional in rhyme, capitalization and punctuation.
Dickinson was troubled from a young age by the "deepening menace" of death, especially the deaths of those who were close to her. Accordingly, many of her poems deal with themes of death, immortality, and explore aesthetics, society, nature, and spirituality. She says:
“Some of my friends are gone, and some of my friends are sleeping – sleeping the churchyard sleep – the hour of evening is sad – it was once my study hour – my master has gone to rest, and the open leaf of the book, and the scholar at school alone, make the tears come, and I cannot brush them away; I would not if I could, for they are the only tribute I can pay.”
The writings of Shakespeare, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre inspired Emily – each providing a liberating effect on her own works.
It was not until after her death in 1886 that Lavinia, her younger sister, discovered her cache of poems and began making them public. The first of her poems were in 1890, but a complete collection of Emily’s poetry did not become available as ‘The Poems of Emily Dickinson’ until 1955, almost 70 years after her passing. In 1955 Emily Dickenson was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.
Although we have not ourselves been influenced by Emily Dickenson in writing our trilogy, we include her in these “Inspirations” for the uniqueness of her persona and the following of her quotes:
“Forever is composed of nows.”
“If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain.”
“To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.”
“I dwell in possibility.”
“Saying nothing… sometimes says the most.”
“I know nothing in the world that has as much power as a word. Sometimes I write one, and I look at it, until it begins to shine.”
“Beauty is not caused. It is.”
