Childhood/Early Career
Emily Dickinson was born December 10, 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts. Her parents were Edward Dickinson and Emily Norcross Dickinson. They were a well off family that had very strong community ties. She attended Amherst Academy and received more education than most girls of her time and then also attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary for one year. In her early twenties she participated in social events, although this changed as she got older.
Reclusive Later Life
In her mid twenties, Emily Dickinson became more and more reclusive. She lived in the second story of her parent's middle class home and was perceived as strange. She often dressed in white to mock the traditions of marriage, and by the time she was thirty she hardly talked to anyone except for her close family. When her father died and her mother became an invalid, she began to dread strangers and became even more reclusive, though she kept on writing poetry, hidden up in the second story of her parent's house. When she died May 15, 1886 her sister Lavinia found piles of bound poems Emily had written. Luckily, she decided to publish them, which gave her the poetry the recognition they deserved.
Influences on Poet
The principle of Emily Dickinson's school, Leonard Humphrey helped her develop her mind, while she was also influenced by the writing of Ralph Waldo Emerson and showed his late pessimism in her poems. Her puritan New England upbringing also affected her writing, along with metaphysical poets of the 17th century. Emily Dickinson admired poets like John Keats and Robert and Elizabeth Browning. She fell in love with a young preacher named Charles Wadsworth, and was very sad when she found out that he was already married. Some people believe that this disappointment affected some of her poetry.
World Events
When the civil war was raging on, Emily Dickinson was writing some of her best poems, and many of them reflected the alienation many intellectuals felt after the Civil War. The Great Revival in New England was also going on during her life, where religion became a bigger part of people's lives. Because her father was involved in movement, she did not let him know how much time she was spending in her room writing, because he would not have approved. Abolitionists were also becoming more popular during her time, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed.
Impact on Literature/Traits of Poetry
Over her lifetime Emily Dickinson wrote over 1,700 different poems. A theme in a lot of her poetry was that the most important moments in life are over with as soon as they begin. The experience of life is also in many of her poems. When Emily Dickinson mentions "a lover" in some of her poetry she is actually referring to death and eternity. She is considered one of the founders of the American poetic voice.
Emily Dickinson was born December 10, 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts. Her parents were Edward Dickinson and Emily Norcross Dickinson. They were a well off family that had very strong community ties. She attended Amherst Academy and received more education than most girls of her time and then also attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary for one year. In her early twenties she participated in social events, although this changed as she got older.
Reclusive Later Life
In her mid twenties, Emily Dickinson became more and more reclusive. She lived in the second story of her parent's middle class home and was perceived as strange. She often dressed in white to mock the traditions of marriage, and by the time she was thirty she hardly talked to anyone except for her close family. When her father died and her mother became an invalid, she began to dread strangers and became even more reclusive, though she kept on writing poetry, hidden up in the second story of her parent's house. When she died May 15, 1886 her sister Lavinia found piles of bound poems Emily had written. Luckily, she decided to publish them, which gave her the poetry the recognition they deserved.
Influences on Poet
The principle of Emily Dickinson's school, Leonard Humphrey helped her develop her mind, while she was also influenced by the writing of Ralph Waldo Emerson and showed his late pessimism in her poems. Her puritan New England upbringing also affected her writing, along with metaphysical poets of the 17th century. Emily Dickinson admired poets like John Keats and Robert and Elizabeth Browning. She fell in love with a young preacher named Charles Wadsworth, and was very sad when she found out that he was already married. Some people believe that this disappointment affected some of her poetry.
World Events
When the civil war was raging on, Emily Dickinson was writing some of her best poems, and many of them reflected the alienation many intellectuals felt after the Civil War. The Great Revival in New England was also going on during her life, where religion became a bigger part of people's lives. Because her father was involved in movement, she did not let him know how much time she was spending in her room writing, because he would not have approved. Abolitionists were also becoming more popular during her time, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed.
Impact on Literature/Traits of Poetry
Over her lifetime Emily Dickinson wrote over 1,700 different poems. A theme in a lot of her poetry was that the most important moments in life are over with as soon as they begin. The experience of life is also in many of her poems. When Emily Dickinson mentions "a lover" in some of her poetry she is actually referring to death and eternity. She is considered one of the founders of the American poetic voice.