FREE ESSAY ON EMILY DICKENSON

EMILY DICKENSON

Emily Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830 in Amherst Massachusetts. She had a younger
sister named Lavina and an older brother named Austin. Her mother Emily Norcross
Dickinson, was largely dependent on her family and was seen by Emily as a poor mother.
Her father was lawyer, Congressman, and the Treasurer for Amherst College. Unlike her
mother, Emily loved and admired her father. Since the family was not emotional, they
lived a quiet secure life. They rarely shared their problems with one another so Emily
had plenty of privacy for writing. 
During her childhood, Emily and her family attended The First Congregational Church on a
regular basis. Emily did not like going to church because she didn't think of herself as
being very religious. She refused to believe that Heaven was a better place than Earth
and eventually rebelled from the church. Emily saw herself as a woman who had her own way
of thinking, a way of thinking shaped neither by the church or society. 
By the time she was twelve, her family moved to a house on Pleasant Street where they
lived from 1840 to 1855. Emily was already writing letters, but composed most of her
poetry in this home. Emily only left home to attend Mount Holyoke Female Seminary for two
semesters. 
Though her stay there was brief, she impressed her teachers with her courage and
directness. They felt her writing was sensational. 
At the age of twenty-one, Emily and her family moved to the Dickinson Homestead on Main
Street. This move proved to be very difficult for Emily. This was difficult for Emily
because she became very attached to her old house, which shaped her writing and
personality for fifteen years. They now lived next door to her brother Austin and his
wife Susan and their daughter Martha. Emily and Susan became so close that many people
believe they may have been lovers. A rumor perpetuated by the fact that Emily was known
to have written many love letters and poems to Susan. Martha attempted to protect both of
their images and suppress the rumors. It became common knowledge that Emily had some type
of very strong feelings for Susan. 
At the age of thirty-one Emily sent some of her poems to a publisher, Thomas Higginson,
from whom she got a very good response and a strong friendship developed. He acted as her
mentor but she never seemed to have taken any of his advice. It became evident that she
didn't like the idea of having her works published, she made 40 packets of about twenty
poems apiece from 814 poems. She placed these in a box along with 333 other poems. 
Emily died on May 5, 1886 at the age of 56. She had planned her own funeral. It was held
at the mansion on Main Street and ended at the family plot near the house on Pleasant
Street. At her request, her casket was covered with violets and pine boughs, while she
herself was dressed in a new white gown and had a strand of violets placed about her
neck. Before she died, Emily left specific instructions for her sister and a housemaid,
Maggie to destroy all the letters she had received and saved. The box of packets and
poems was found with these letters, but Emily had not said anything about destroying
them. Her sister Lavina was determined to have these published, but Susan kept them for
two years before they were released to Higginson. 
In 1890 and 1891, some of the poems were published. They received a great response, but
no more were released until 1955, when the rest of her poems were published. Though she
was not religious many of her poems do reflect Protestant and Calvinistic views. She
wrote many of her poems on pain, but unlike most Protestants she refused to believe that
she deserved this pain. Though she is viewed by many as a hermit who spent much of her
life in isolation, she also is admired for her style in writing. She chose her words for
her poems in a way that allows the reader to choose the meaning. In conclusion, she wrote
nearly eighteen hundred poems, most ignoring rhyme and punctuation. Emily's poems did not
have titles because she never wanted them to be published. Many of her poems are dark and
mysterious but all are true works of art.