Emily Dickinson

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Emily Dickinson

• Born on Dec. 10, 1830, in Amherst, Massachusetts.
  Wrote about 1800 poems, really became noticed
  posthumously.
• Lived mostly in isolation except when attended
  the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in South
  Hadley (a liberal arts college) and Amherst
• Main concerns in life was her garden, family,
  close friends, and health
• People she came in contact with all impacted her
  poetry. Particularly Reverend Charles Wadsworth.
  She called him her closest earthly friend.
  Possible romantic relationship that stirred
  heartache in her poems.
• Poetry influenced by orthodox/conservative
  Christian poets of 17th century although she did
  not believe in most of it.
• Always pressured to join the saved but never
  wanted to. Complicated inner feelings of being
  shut out of heaven

Dickinson created in her writing a distinctively
elliptical language for expressing what was
possible but not yet realized