This is my letter to the world,

1
This is my letter to the world, That never wrote
to me,--  The simple news that Nature told,
 With tender majesty.  Her message is committed
 To hands I cannot see  For love of her, sweet
countrymen, Judge tenderly of me!

• Emily
  Dickinson

2
Emily Dickinson

• The Belle of Amherst

3
(No Transcript)
4
Emily was born

• Emily Elizabeth Dickinson on December 10, 1830 to
  a very prominent family in Amherst, MA
• Second child to Elizabeth Norcross Dickinson and
  Edward Dickinson (Yale grad, lawyer, Congressman)
• Granddaughter to Samuel Fowler Dickinson (one of
  the founders of Amherst College and builder of
  the National Historic Landmark The Homestead,
  Emilys home)

5

• Edward and Elizabeth Norcross Dickinson

6
Emily had

• An older brother named William Austin (Austin)
  and a younger sister Lavinia Norcross (Vinnie)

7
Emily attended

• Amherst Academy from 1840-1847
• Left for Mount Holyoke Female Seminary at the age
  of 17
• Returned home 10 months later from either
  homesickness, illness, or her refusal to publicly
  announce her faith

8
At home, Emily

• Baked for her family
• Took place in household activities
• Ventured out to attend local events in the
  budding college town
• Was an avid gardener

9
Emily stayed close to home..

• Besides one big trip to D.C. and Philly in 1855
• When her mother became chronically ill, Emily
  would barely leave The Homestead to be near her
• In 1858, she began to write clean copies of her
  work
• Forty bundles comprising nearly eight hundred
  poems but no one knew of these until after her
  death

10

• The manuscript of her poem Wild Nights Wild
  Nights!

11
A family friend

• Samuel Bowles published some of Emilys poems
  from 1858-1868 in his Springfield Republican
• They were anonymous and heavily edited
• They included A narrow Fellow in the Grass as
  The Snake, and Nobody knows this little rose

12
(No Transcript)
13
In 1862

• Emily answered a call for poetry submissions in
  The Atlantic Monthly from Thomas Wentworth
  Higginson
• He told her to delay publishing, but they became
  close friends, as he provided great moral support
• Emily once told him he saved her life in 1862

14

• Thomas Wentworth Higginson

15
In 1864

• Several of Emilys poems were published in Drum
  Beat to raise money for wounded Union soldiers
  during the Civil War and
• Another was published that year in the Brooklyn
  Daily Union

16
Emily made a trip to Boston

• In 1865, which would be her last venture from
  Amherst
• She rarely even left The Homestead
• She became known as the Myth because she was
  rarely seen
• Also The Lady in White because she was always
  wearing white when she was seen
• As early as 1867, she began to talk to her
  visitors from behind closed doors

17
Despite her seclusion

• Emily was socially active and expressive through
  her letters and poems
• Though she would leave when visitors came, she
  would write them poems or give them small gifts
• However, she met Higginson in her home in 1870

18
In 1874

• Emilys father suffered a stroke and diedshe
  only opened her door a crack for the funeral, and
  did not attend memorial service
• A year later, her mother suffered a stroke, and
  was left in bad physical and mental state
• Around this time, Emily stopped going out in
  public, but still had visitors and wrote to close
  friends

19
In the 1878

• Helen Hunt Jackson convinced Emily to publish
  Success is counted sweetest anonymously in A
  Masque of Poets
• This was the last poem published in her lifetime

20
In the summer of 1884

• Emily fainted while baking, which led to weeks of
  ill health
• On November 30, 1885, her brother cancelled a
  trip to Boston because she was confined to bed
  and worried him
• She wrote a burst of letters the following
  spring, including one thought to be her last to
  her cousins, Little Cousins, Called Back.
  Emily

21
On May 15, 1886

• Emily died at the age of 55 of Brights Disease
• Her coffin was carried through daffodils, and
  Higginson read No Coward Soul is Mine by Emily
  Bronte, Emilys favorite poem
• She was buried at West Cemetery on Triangle
  Street in Amherst

22
Lavinia promised

• That she would burn Emilys correspondence after
  her death
• No instructions were left regarding the forty
  notebooks and loose sheets Emily left in her
  chest
• Vinnie sought to have them published

23
Poems was published in 1890
24
Poems Second Series was published in 1891
25
In 1894

• Two volumes of Emilys letters, highly edited,
  appeared
• Susan Dickinson (Austins wife) published some
  poems in literary magazines, such as Scribners
  Magazine and The Independent
• Martha Dickenson Bianchi (Emilys niece)
  published a series of collections between 1914
  and 1929
• Other volumes followed throughout the 1930s

26
Poems Third Series was published in 1896
27
In 1960

• The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson was
  published by Thomas H. Johnson
• It contained all 1,775 of her poemsall unedited
• Various books of her poems and letters have been
  published since

28
(No Transcript)
29
Emily is known for

• Unconventional broken rhyming meter
• The use of dashes
• Random capitalization
• Use of metaphor
• Varied line lengths
• No titles
• Various genres

30
Emily Dickinson is

• Considered one of the most original poets of the
  19th century
• Placed alongside such poets as Walt Whitman and
  Robert Frost
• Taught in grade school, high school and college
• A powerful and persistent figure of American
  culture
• Heralded as the greatest woman poet in the
  English language

31
(No Transcript)
32
Works Consulted

• Emily Dickinson. Wikipedia The Free
  Encyclopedia. 12 July 2008 http//en.wikipedia.
  org/wiki/Emily_Dickinson
• Emily Dickinson. The Literature Network. 12
  July 2008 http//www.online-literature.com/dickin
  son/

33
Pictures

• Slide 3 Emily in black dress from
  http//cache.eb.com/eb/image?id62015rendTypeId4
  
• Slide 5 Emilys parents from
  http//andrejkoymasky.com/liv/fam/biod2/dick4/dick
  2.jpg and http//andrejkoymasky.com/liv/fam/biod2/
  dick4/dick3.jpg
• Slide 6 Emily and siblings from
  http//andrejkoymasky.com/liv/fam/biod2/dick4/dick
  1.jpg
• Slide 10 Wild Nights Wild Nights! from
  http//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thum
  b/b/be/Emily_Dickinson_22Wild_nights22_manuscrip
  t.jpg/180px-Emily_Dickinson_22Wild_nights22_manu
  script.jpg
• Slide 12 The Republican from
  http//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thum
  b/6/6c/Emilyrepublican.jpg/180px-Emilyrepublican.j
  pg
• Slide 14 Higginson from http//upload.wikimedia
  .org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/a2/Thomas_Wentworth_Higg
  inson.jpg/180px-Thomas_Wentworth_Higginson.jpg

34
Pictures (Contd)

• Slide 23 Poems from http//upload.wikimedia.org
  /wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4f/Emily_Dickinson_Poem
  s_28189029.djvu/page1-300px-Emily_Dickinson_Poem
  s_28189029.djvu.jpg
• Slide 24 Poems Second Series from
  http//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thum
  b/4/4f/Emily_Dickinson_Poems_28189029.djvu/page1
  -300px-Emily_Dickinson_Poems_28189029.djvu.jpg
• Slide 25 Poems Third Series from
  http//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thum
  b/c/cb/Emily_Dickinson_Poems_-_third_series_28189
  629.djvu/page1-381px-Emily_Dickinson_Poems_-_thir
  d_series_28189629.djvu.jpg
• Slide 28 Rowing in Eden from
  http//www.emilydickinson.org/resources/smith_rowi
  ng/p68image.jpg
• Slide 30 Emily sitting from http//www.writespi
  rit.net/authors/emily_dickinson/Emily20Dickinson.
  JPG