Emily Dickinson

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Emily Dickinson
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Emily Dickinson

• Born in 1830
• Died in 1886
• Grew up in Amherst, Massachusetts
• Considered the first great modern American poet
• Was very eccentric

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The Best, The BEST!

• Emily Dickinson is considered by most critics to
  be one of the greatest, if THE greatest American
  poet.
• BUT, she has a very strange story

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Little House in Amherst

• She spent most of her life in a house in Amherst,
  Mass.
• She had an active, fun-loving childhood.
• In her 20s, something happened that made her
  very reclusive and introverted. No one really
  knows what it was. But she changed.
• This behavior worsened when her parents died.

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All in what?

• As she got older, she dressed all white.
• She refused to meet visitors.
• She didnt even do household chores.
• For the last ten years of her life, she never
  even left the house.
• In fact, when she was about to die, she wouldnt
  let the doctors come to see her, even though her
  sister tried to get them to come.

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Whats in this drawer?

• While alive, Dickinson published only seven
  poems.
• After her death at age 55, her sister discovered
  1,775 poems hidden in her house.
• In the year 1862 alone, she wrote 366 poems.
• Wow!

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What makes her so great?

• Dickinsons poetry is considered great for two
  reasons.
• 1. She made excellent use of technique.
• She used the following tools to create beauty
• Alliteration the repetition of consonant sounds
• Assonance the repetition of vowel sounds
• Slant Rhyme rhyme created by words that have
  similar sounds, but do not really rhyme
• Example tuition/pollution

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• 2. Her Themes were emotionally powerful.
• What is theme?
• She was able to use only a few words to create
  messages that captured true emotions.
• Many people could relate to these poems.