Presentation by Elishka Alberto
Biography
Emily Dickinson- Stealing Poetic Hearts since the First
Sentence
Biography
List Of Works
Sample Poems
Inspired Poems
Original Poems
Bibliography
"If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold
no fire can warm me I know that is poetry. If I feel physically
as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.
These are the only way I know it. Is there any other way
(Emily Dickinson Museum)?”
These very words come from the gifted poet herself,
Emily Dickinson, who describes poetry as somewhat that you
don’t only read, but feel deep inside you. Edward Dickinson
and his wife, Emily Norcross, gave birth to their second child,
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson, on December 10, 1830 at the
family Homestead in Amherst, Massachusetts. Her father
was a politician and a lawyer and her mother was a hardworking, religious housewife who endured depression
throughout her life. Around 1840, the family moved out of the
Homestead where Dickinson’s grandparents had resided and
moved into a new home because of her father expanding
political career. Dickinson would often keep herself busy by
baking and gardening while attending school too. She also did
many other activities outside home chores like attending
church occasions, reading books, playing music, taking walks,
and writing letters. She attended Amherst Academy for seven
years before entering Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. But
after a year of attending, Dickinson returned home claiming
that she was homesick (“Emily Dickinson” Poets.org). She grew
up having many female friends but becoming close to seven
male friends; one by the name of Benjamin Newton gifted a
copy of Emerson Poems.
Biography (continued)
Biography
List Of Works
Sample Poems
Inspired Poems
Original Poems
Bibliography
Another male friend of her’s by the name of Henry Vaughn
Emmons was one of the few people with whom she shared her
earliest poetry. Emily Dickinson died on May 15th, 1886 at the
age of 55; it is believed that she died of heart failure and brain
hemorrhage (Emily Dickinson Museum).
A powerful period for Dickinson was from 1865 to
1886 where she started her creative writing. Dickinson’s
inspiration came from many of the books she read and from
the events happening in her life. At a very young age she
inquired and questioned about death and immortality with the
death of friends and family and the cemetery located next to
her which house gave her imagery for her poems (Emily
Dickinson Museum). During this period of writing, the Civil
War was occurring, which made an overwhelming change in
her life. Another inspiration to her came from Benjamin
Newton who had gifted her many books that she cherished.
After Dickinson’s father purchased the Homestead where she
was born, the family moved back into it. There Dickinson’s
father gifted a conservatory for her to garden all year. Many
of her poems were inspired by the plants she grew. Dickinson
was also inspired by her religion. Growing up as a Calvinist,
she wrote many poems about God and how grateful she was for
what she had. She was very influenced by Lydia Maria Child’s
Letters from New York and also by Shakespeare. Her poetry
was very secluded and only a few were ever published. The
poems that were published while she alive were put as an
‘anonymous’ writer, so she did not receive any awards for
them. Today, there are many awards distributed to talented
poets are named after her in her honor. Though her education
was short, by the age of 35 she had already written more than
1100 poems that canvassed pain, grief, joy, love, nature, and
art (Emily Dickinson Museum).
Biography (continued)
Biography
List Of Works
Sample Poems
Inspired Poems
Original Poems
Bibliography
Many of Dickinson’s poems came from the
world around her and her personality. Dickinson’s
distinct style in her poetry was how she used English
hymns and would often disregard rules for grammar. The
main thinking behind Dickinson’s poetry came from her
feeling about the major events in her life. Some of her
ideas were loneliness, inspiration, and happiness that she
found in art and the natural world. Through these ideas
her poetic devices affected her writing style. One of her
styles is the way she uses iambic heptameter, which is a
poetic meter that has seven iambic metrical feet per line (
“Iambic Heptameter”). Dickinson also used
personification, unexpected rhymes, slant rhymes, and
dashes that she used to pause or take a break. Through her
poetry Dickinson served as an inspiration to other poets.
As an inspiration to other poets, she was only notable
after her death. This only happened four years after she
had passed away which was when her first book of poetry
was published (“Emily Dickinson as Discussed in
American Literature”). Since then she has been stealing
the hearts of inspired poets. Even though Emily
Dickinson’s life was many events, happy or sad, she still
managed to bring thought-provoking poetry about life to
everyone. With Dickinson’s poetry the reader would know
it is true poetry by how cold one’s body feels that no fire
can warm it. Emily Dickinson and she embraces it in her
writing in no other way a writer does.
List Of Works
Biography
List Of Works
Sample Poems
Inspired Poems
Original Poems
Bibliography
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
An altered look about the hills
An awful tempest mashed the air
As if some little arctic flower
Come slowly, Eden!
The daisy follows soft the sun
The gentian weaves her fringes
Going to heaven!
Heart, we will forget him!
I bring an unaccustomed wine
If I should die
I had a guinea golden
I have not told my garden yet
I never lost as much but twice
Morns like these we parted
The murmur of a bee
New feet within my garden go
The rose did caper on her cheek
Success is counted sweetest (Most famous)
These are the days when birds come back
What inn is this
Who robbed the woods
– And many more…
– Click to read more of Dickinson’s poems
Heaven Is What I
Cannot Reach by Emily
Dickinson
Analysis of Heaven Is
What I Cannot Reach
Biography
List Of Works
Sample Poems
Inspired Poems
Original Poems
Bibliography
Heaven is what I cannot reach!
The apple on the tree,
Provided it do hopeless hang,
That "heaven" is, to me.
The color on the cruising cloud,
The interdicted ground
Behind the hill, the house behind, -There Paradise is found!
Analysis
Analysis of Heaven Is What I Cannot
Reach
Biography
List Of Works
Sample Poems
Inspired Poems
Original Poems
Bibliography
In Emily Dickinson’s poem, “Heaven Is What I Cannot
Reach”, Dickinson uses similes and imagery to help explain
what heaven is to her. This poem shows that when loved ones
have passed away, it is hard to keep the connection with
them, no matter how much we want to. First, she uses similes
to help the reader connect to the feeling of this poem. An
example of this is at the beginning when she writes, “Heaven
is what I cannot reach!/The apple on the tree,/Provided it do
hopeless hang,/That ‘heaven’ is, to me.” This quote describes
of the difficulty to reach heaven by comparing it to reaching
for an apple that is too high. But then, Dickinson uses
imagery by stating, “The color on the cruising cloud, / The
interdicted ground/ Behind the hill, the house behind,--/
There Paradise is found!” Dickinson shows that heaven looks
like a cloud moving through the sky and that even though it
cannot be reached so easily, Paradise will be found there one
day. Through Emily Dickinson’s similes and imagery, she
compares and describes to us that heaven is something that
we cannot reach now, but something that we can reach in
the future.
Sample Poems
Biography
List Of Works
Sample Poems
Inspired Poems
Original Poems
Bibliography
Elizabeth Dickinson’s Success is one of her greatest
poems ever written. One of the reasons for why this
poem is so recognized is Dickinson’s use of stanza and
rhyme. The poem is centered around complicated moral
sayings that place high values on success. This can be
see just in the first two lines of the poem; where
Dickinson sates, “Success is counted sweetest/ By those
who ne’er succeed”. This shows that people admire and
want things more when they don’t have them. I really
enjoyed this poem because its very inspirational and
true.
Success by Emily Dickinson
Success is counted sweetest
By those who ne'er succeed.
To comprehend a nectar
Requires sorest need.
Not one of all the purple host
Who took the flag to-day
Can tell the definition ,
So clear, of victory,
As he, defeated, dying,
On whose forbidden ear
The distant strains of triumph
Break, agonized and clear.
Sample Poems
I Cannot Live With You
I Cannot Live With You, by Emily Dickinson is
one of the greatest love poems. It closely follows
to her inspiration, Shakespeare’s, sonnets. The
poem can be separated into many parts but they
share the common idea, the impossibility of love.
The poem also uses irony by stating, “I Cannot
Live With You” shows Emily Dickinson’s way of
playing with the love and the human mind.
Biography
List Of Works
Sample Poems
Inspired Poems
Original Poems
Bibliography
I cannot live with you, It would be life,
And life is over there
Behind the shelf
The sexton keeps the key to,
Putting up
Our life, his porcelain,
Nor could I rise with you,
Like a cup
Because your face
Discarded of the housewife,
Would put out Jesus’.
Quaint or broken;
That new grace
A newer Sevres pleases,
Glow plain and foreign
Old ones crack.
On my homesick eye,
I could not die with you,
Except that you, than he
For one must wait
Shone closer by.
To shut the other's gaze down,-They’d judge us—how?
You could not.
For you served Heaven, you know
And I, could I stand by
Or sought to;
And see you freeze,
I could not
Without my right of frost,
Death's privilege?
Inspired Poems
A Light Exists In Spring by Elizabeth Dickinson
A light exists in spring
Not present on the year
At any other period.
When March is scarcely here
Biography
List Of Works
Sample Poems
Inspired Poems
Original Poems
Bibliography
A color stands abroad
On solitary hills
That science cannot overtake,
But human naturefeels.
It waits upon the lawn;
It shows the furthest tree
Upon the furthest slope we know;
It almost speaks to me.
Then, as horizons step,
Or noons report away,
Without the formula of sound,
It passes, and we stay:
A quality of loss
Affecting our content,
As trade had suddenly encroached
Upon a sacrament.
Elishka Alberto’s poem
inspired by A Light
Exists In Spring
Inspired Poems
The Bright of Spring by Elishka Alberto
A light exists in spring
Like a firefly in the night
Not easily turned away
Or scared away by fright.
Biography
List Of Works
Sample Poems
Inspired Poems
Original Poems
Bibliography
It gently moves through the grass
on creeping toes quiet
Awaking the flowers and critters
While staying closely by it
It passes my window in the morning
I watch it as I wake
It waves goodbye to me
As it glitters pass the lake
As the sun rises in the sky
It retires away
I feel its remorse
But hope to see it another day
Inspired Poems
Hope Is the Thing with Feathers by Emily Dickinson
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,
Biography
List Of Works
Sample Poems
Inspired Poems
Original Poems
Bibliography
And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.
I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.
Elishka Alberto’s poem
inspired by Hope is a
Thing with Feathers
Inspired Poems
Hope is a Hint of Green by Elishka Alberto
Hope is a seed
Sewn into the caring ground
Watered with loving thoughts
Biography
List Of Works
Sample Poems
Inspired Poems
Original Poems
Bibliography
With patience to grow in spring
And sprout with courage
Its strength helps it bloom
When its mature to pluck
And believes it can live on it own
It will bring thoughts to a hopeless person
Original Poems
Infinite Sun by Elishka Alberto
Biography
List Of Works
Sample Poems
Inspired Poems
Original Poems
Bibliography
The sand so warm with grains between my toes
The sun so bright, its hitting my nose
The smell of the sea, so salty and heavy
The sound of birds drifting away with fish they carry
The water cooling my skin from a hot summer’s day
As the fish and critters swim around wanting to play
I look up at the sky while I float on by
The wispy clouds say hello and goodbye
I wonder what I’ll do tomorrow, probably nothing
But then again I think to myself, who’s fussing?
Original Poems
I Do by Elishka Alberto
Biography
List Of Works
Sample Poems
Inspired Poems
Original Poems
Bibliography
My love for him is so great,
My heart melts for his hold ‘til the dusk
of day.
Why of why does he make me wait?
I sometimes wonder if he’s ok
For the night drones on when he’s away,
Twists, turns ‘til day’s dawn.
His smile so bright
It gives me warmth
Wondering mind ‘til he sees,
Waiting until he can be with me
Coming is all I do,
While waiting for the moment, for me to
say “I do.”
Original Poems
The Moon by Elishka Alberto
Biography
List Of Works
Sample Poems
Inspired Poems
Original Poems
Bibliography
The moon climbs into the night sky
Highlighting and underlying my
deep significance,
All you can do is kiss the sky
Seclusion is a vain existence.
Bibliography
Bibliography for Biography
•
•
•
•
Biography
List Of Works
Sample Poems
•
•
•
Sample Poems
Inspired Poems
Bibliography
http://www.mith2.umd.edu/WomensStudies/ReadingRoom/Poetry/Dickinso
n/heaven-is-what
http://www.mith2.umd.edu/WomensStudies/ReadingRoom/Poetry/Dickinso
n/success.html
http://www.mith2.umd.edu/WomensStudies/ReadingRoom/Poetry/Dickinso
n/i-cannot-live-with-you
Inspired Poems
•
•
Original Poems
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/e/emily_dickinson.html
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/155
http://languageisavirus.com/poetry-guide/iambic_heptameter.html
http://www.britannica.com/facts/5/312283/Emily-Dickinson-as-discussedin-American-literature
http://www.mith2.umd.edu/WomensStudies/ReadingRoom/Poetry/Dickinso
n/hope-is-the-thing
http://www.mith2.umd.edu/WomensStudies/ReadingRoom/Poetry/Dickinso
n/a-light-exists-in-spring
Pictures
•
•
•
•
Biography
List Of Works
•
•
•
Sample Poems
•
Inspired Poems
•
•
•
Original Poems
•
Bibliography
•
Bibliography
http://bookxcessblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/emily-dickinson.jpg
(Dickinson’s book of poetry)
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5165/5340749141_f0a257d07f.jpg Hope
(Dickinson version)
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bGGsCA3TLgM/SzmWPMzZjI/AAAAAAAABxs/QpSmI2XAoY4/s400/person+on+beach.jpg (Infinite
Sun)
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_P86w3jiXpHU/TROboHtNiEI/AAAAAAAAM7o/VkFZQ
2ZmRA8/s1600/emily+dickinson.jpg (Dickinson title picture- black and white)
http://www.inamherst.com/images/Emily-Dickinson-Portrait.jpg (Dickinson Bio
Portrait)
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3342/3408177068_5f00bc2c0c.jpg (A Hint of
Green)
http://ekirstein.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/heaven03.jpg (Heaven Is What I
Cannot Reach)
http://wallpaper-s.org/11__Firefly_Forest,_Game_Test,_3DMark05.htm (The
Bright Of Spring)
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_0pWKNqFIn7M/SY7bYyDCIoI/AAAAAAAAAbI/n3xBA5TS2g/s400/full_moon.jpg (The Moon)
http://www.suhaibwebb.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/success_beach.jpg
(Success)
http://www.celestialenergyhealing.com/images/Web%20Images/Light%20in%2
0Forest.jpg (A Light Exists in Spring)
http://data.whicdn.com/images/924335/bird_girl_sky_birds_freedom_photogra
phy-7b9994a29cd90dcd3ae8ca3d80d77da4_h_thumb.jpg?1257165567 (Hope Is
A thing with feathers)
http://www.vivaboo.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/endless-love-bridegroom-wedding-water-sunset-veil-kiss.jpg (I Do)