Emily Dickinson

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Emily Dickinson

• A Unique Style

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Background

• Born on December 10th 1830
• Grew up in Amherst, Massachusetts (NE)
• Emily admired and respected her father
• She didnt have a close relationship with her
  mother until after she had a stroke
• She was close with her siblings (older brother,
  younger sister)
• Had a passion for learning

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Education

• Amherst Academy
• Mt. Holyoke Female Seminary
• While at school she had a religious crisis,
  struggling to join the church with doubts
• Poems reflect her religious struggle
• Educated herself at home
• Discovered her passion was poetry

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The Influential Years

• 1862 turning point because man whom she loved,
  (Rev. Charles Wadsworth) moved to California
• Wrote 366 poems in that year
• When she was in her 30s, she withdrew from the
  world

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Dickinson Downhill

• By middle age, she rarely went out of the house
• Frequently wore a white dress (a bride?)
• Corresponded with family through letters
• Interactive with neighbors on occasion
• 1884 she fell ill
• Died from Brights Disease (Kidney Failure) May
  15, 1884
• Brother rescued some of her poems

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Dickinsons Style

• Although secluded her poems reveal a life that
  was, one of the richest and deepest ever lived
  on this continent. (Allen Tate)

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Characteristics of Dickinsons Poetry
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Punctuation (Dashes)

• Allows for pauses to emphasize the rhythm of the
  poem

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Capitalization

• Emphasizes words to draw attention to them

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Assonance or Slant Rhyme

• Also to draw attention to certain words or ideas.
  At that time, an unconventional way to rhyme
  poetry. Similar to near rhyme but words are not
  as closely rhymed usually a rhyme scheme is
  already in place

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Rhythm

• Usually set up as eight syllables, six syllables,
  eight syllables (Give or take) for stanza (four
  lines long). This is why many of her poems can be
  sung to the theme song of Gilligans Island

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Rhyme Scheme

• Per stanza, usually it is A B C B

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Metaphor

• In poetry that is as short as Dickinsons,
  metaphor is powerful. It is an efficient way to
  produce complex themes in only a few lines
• (lots of PERSONIFICATION!)

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Common Themes

• Nature and death. She often would take a simple
  scene and use it to communicate a more profound
  message until the last stanza (twist).

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Example Dickinson Poem

• I like to see it lap the Miles-
• And lick the Valleys up-
• And stop to feed itself at Tanks-
• And then- prodigious step
• Around a Pile of Mountains-
• And supercilious peer
• In Shanties-by the sides of Roads-
• And then a Quarry pare

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Example Dickinson Poem (cont.)

• To fit its sides and crawl between
• Complaining all the while
• In horrid- hooting stanza-
• Then chase itself down Hill
• And neigh like Boanerges-
• Then- prompter than a Star
• Stop- docile and omnipotent
• At its own stable door-