FREE ESSAY ON EMILY DICKINSON

EMILY DICKINSON

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
didnt 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.