A famous author of the romanticism movement is Emily Elizabeth Dickinson. Emily
Dickinson was American born poet, who no only dabbled in but was exceptional in writing
poems both on romance and gothic. She was born in Amherst, Massachusetts on December 10th,
1830. Amongst her community she and her family were very popular, and highly known. She
was born, the middle child into a somewhat prominent family. Emily’s family included, her
father, her mother, her brother and her sister. Her father, Edward Dickinson, was a member of
Congress, treasurer of Amherst College for a period of time, and a lawyer. Her mother, who is
also Emily, was a stay at home, religious, housewife, who later in her life was stricken with
depression. Her brother, Austin was the eldest child of the family, who one day grew up to be a
lawyer much like his father. Her sister Lavinia, the baby of the family, became a chief
housekeeper, never ventured away from home, and sadly never married and never conceived
children of her own. In 1856, Emily’s brother Austin married Emily’s best friend and
schoolmate, Susan Gilbert (Trustees of Amherst College, 2009).
Emily’s early education included attending a primary school that was near her family’s
home. Emily’s education grew while attending and graduating from Amherst Academy in 1847.
For a brief moment of her life, Emily lived in a Female Seminary. Sadly, throughout Emily’s life
she saw much suffering and death in the people she cared deeply for such as her second cousin,
Amherst’s esteemed principal, Leonard Humphrey, her mother and father, her nephew and her
very close family friend Benjamin Franklin Newton. In addition to death around her constantly,
before her mother died she was very ill and needed constant care and attention. The more and
more that her mother became ill the less Emily left the house, in turn making her less social and
more of a recluse which is another characteristic many people attribute to her. It is believed that
Benjamin Newton, introduced the authors of William Wordsworth, and gave her a book of
poems by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Some of her greatest influences for writing her astounding
works of poetry were people like William Wordsworth, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Lydia Maria
Child, Henry Wadsworth, Jane Eyre, and William Shakespeare (Encyclopedia of World
Biography).
Emily Dickinson’s represent the romanticism and the gothic movement. Emily Dickinson
exemplifies both movements because through out her life she was constantly surrounded by
emotions love, and death, which helped her to write poetry, something she felt strongly
connected with because of people such as her mother, Benjamin Franklin Newton, and her friend
Susan Gilbert. It is unclear as to the exact point when Emily Dickinson began writing, but it is
known that she wrote during the Civil War. The Civil War affected Emily’s writing because at
that time she began writing letters to a Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson who inspired
some of her poems. It is also believed that during the Civil War Emily Dickinson wrote a
majority of her poems. (Trustees of Amherst College, 2009) By 1858 Emily had written
countless poems, her poem that best represents romanticism is “if you were coming in the fall.”
It best represents it because each line describes an amount of time being brushed away, and as
time goes quicker and quicker, the sooner she gets to see her love and because it describes the
amount of time she is willing to wait for him. (Eliteskills/critics) In the summer of 1858, she
took on the task of going through her old poems, re-reading them, editing them, forming them
into new ones, neatly written copies and eventually composing them into a collections of work
with countless poem. Many critics believe that in the early to mid 1860’s was Emily’s more
constructive writing period because of her withdrawal from social life she had an enormous
amount of free time on her hands, she chose to do what she felt comfortable and safe in doing,
writing down some of her deepest and intellectual poems. In 1884, Emily had suffered from what
many believe to be a stroke, and over time had caused her health to deteriorate more and more.
Finally her suffering ended on May 15th almost two years after her apparent stroke Emily died at
the age of about 55. Her brother Austin had the Dickinson family physician to come and examine
her to confirm her death. The physician confirmed her death, and determined her cause of death
was from a type of kidney disease. Sad to say because of Emily’s reclusiveness, she never
married and never had children, Emily died alone as a spinster. (Trustees of Amherst College,
2009) (Encyclopedias of World Biography)
Work cited
Trustees of Amherst College. “Emily Dickinson: Her Chilhood and Youth (1830-1855).”
Emily Dickinson Musem. Harvard University Press.. 13, Dec. 2011.
< http://www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/>
Eliteskills. “If you were coing in the fall, Analysis.” Elite Skills Classics. 19, Dec. 2011/
http://www.eliteskills.com/c/4608
Encyclopedia of World Biography. “Emily Dickinson Biography.” Noteablebiographies.
2011. Advameg, Inc,. 13, Dec., 2011.
< http://www.notablebiographies.com/De-Du/Dickinson-Emily.html#b>