Emily Dickinson (1830–1886)
by Dori Anne Abbott
(7 July 1998)

  From the hotbed of Puritanism, the birthplace of Transcendentalism, and a family of great renown comes one of the most fascinating female poets of our times.  Emily Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts.  As the granddaughter of one of the founders of Amherst College, and the daughter of a prominent politician, Dickinson had the benefit of a proper upbringing and an excellent education.

  As a young woman, Dickinson had lovely auburn hair; pale, delicate skin, solid white clothing, and a demure nature. Some critics think that her poetry shows a rebellion against her strong religious background, or a refusal to participate in the Transcendental Movement. However, it is my opinion that her self-imposed seclusion more than anything else enabled Dickinson to focus on her own craft and kept her from being influenced by any contemporary authors.

  Dickinson was influenced quite deeply by her close friendships with Samuel Bowles and J.G. Holland, and by her deep attachment to Charles Wadsworth and Thomas Wentworth Higginson. Dickinson considered the Reverend Charles Wadsworth her dearest, earthly friend, mentor and romantic ideal. Thomas Wentworth Higginson was a prominent literary man to whom Dickinson turned for advice on publishing her poetry. Some have contended that the emotional coldness and inaccessibility of Emily's mother caused the lack of female friends in Dickinson's life; but whatever the reason, her male friends were definitely the strongest influence in her life.

  Dickinson's poems show a definite emotionalism where her perspective and beliefs seem to change according to how she felt at any given moment. As would be consistent with this inductive approach, her poetry reflects a mind less interested in absolute answers to questions than in exploring and examining the questions themselves. That is not to say, however, that her poems were not carefully crafted; because indeed they were.  Each word was weighed against its many synonyms for its ability to impact the reader with the exact emotion Dickinson desired. She believed that while inspiration may be all-sufficient when present, it seldom came even to great poets. Her poetic style was fragmented, enigmatic, abstract, and forcefully sudden in emotion.

  The three main themes of Emily Dickinson's poetry are love, death, and nature.  Regarding love, Dickinson believed that the prismatic ("The Love of Thee--A Prism Be") quality of love enabled energy that passed through the experience of love to reveal a spectrum of possibilities. Dickinson never defined a specific lover, but concentrated on passion as a whole. Concerning nature, Dickinson generally equated nature with heaven or God. She used many Biblical allusions because she regarded nature as religious. Dickinson found manifestations of the universal in the minute details of nature such as bumblebees, eclipses, hills, and flies. She also saw nature as a friend with whom she loved to commune.  Concerning death, Dickinson believed that the question of death was more important than the actual experience of death. It was a strong, cosmic force which left its victims and its survivors powerless--a question to be pondered by the living.

  The later years of Dickinson's life were tragically marked by the deaths of her closest friends: Emily's father died in 1874, Samuel Bowles in 1878, Holland in 1881, her nephew in 1883, Charles Wadsworth and Emily's mother in 1882. Her poetry from that period shows an obsession with death that has come to characterize Emily's work as a whole. However, not all her poetry centered on death. Though introspective, much of it is pleasant and not the least bit macabre.  At the age of 56, Emily Dickinson died from a terminal illness, leaving the world much poorer from her absence, yet much richer from the 2,000 poems she left behind.