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Nichole Deeb
Shenika Glenn
Freshman Language Arts
18 March 2013
Emily Dickinson’s Poetry and How it Relates to Her Life
Emily Dickinson is a poet famous for her strange themes and odd writing style. She wrote
many cryptic and overall eerie poems. Many of her poems cause the general reaction of “how
weird!” from readers. But, where exactly did such weird themes come from? Many people would
simply write it off as her being crazy, but there is an origin for her “madness” that many people
perceive from her “insane ramblings”.
Emily Dickinson’s poems consisted of a variety of strange themes. One, for example, was
her fascination with the sciences, especially flowers. This quote from the Poetry Foundation
provides an example: “In an early poem, she chastised science for its prying interests. Its system
interfered with the observer’s preferences; its study took the life out of living things. In
“‘Arcturus’ is his other name” she writes, “I pull a flower from the woods - / A monster with a
glass / Computes the stamens in a breath - / And has her in a ‘class!’’” (The Poetry Foundation)
More poems relating to flowers and/or sciences are "A narrow fellow in the grass" and "I'll tell
you how the sun rose". Additionally, Emily had many poems revolving around death and pain
from separation. Specifically, the poem, “Parting”, which says: “My life closed twice before its
close; / It yet remains to see -/ If Immortality unveil -/ A third event to me, -/ So huge, so
hopeless to conceive, -/ As these that twice befell. / Parting is all we know of heaven -/ And all
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we need of hell.” (Hoefel, Roseanne L.) This relates to the pain of death. “My life closed twice”
suggests two very painful events occurred, assumed to be deaths. At the end of the poem, the
section talking about parting, heaven, and hell, talks about how those who die part with the ones
on Earth and go to heaven, while the hell part suggests that the true “hell” is the separation of the
living from the dead in heaven. More poems relating to death and/or separation are "I heard a fly
buzz when I died” and "Because I could not stop for Death".
Emily Dickinson spent most of her life in her house. She barely had an outside contact,
save a few very close friends. She was completely isolated from society by the time she died in
1886. Her consistent theme of separation is most likely produced by “Her father, Edward
Dickinson, was actively involved in state and national politics, serving in Congress for one term.
Her brother Austin attended law school and became an attorney, but lived next door once he
married Susan Gilbert” (Poets.org). Also, the recurring theme of death most likely spawned from
her father’s death. The town itself closed down on his funeral, and his family could not bear his
death, which likely included Emily. Additionally, some other poets that she admired were Robert
and Elizabeth Barrett Browning and John Keats.
Emily Dickinson lived in an era in which science was very focused on in schools. She
attended a nearby academy to her home and attended classes in “astronomy, botany, chemistry,
geology, mathematics, natural history, natural philosophy, and zoology” (The Poetry
Foundation). She was a very dedicated scholar when it came to botany in particular. This is most
likely the reason why so much of her work mentioned flowers in some way, as well as nature and
science being recurring themes in her poems. Emily often talked highly of botany and kept a
“herbarium” up until the day she died.
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Emily Dickinson was far from the crazy lunatic many people perceive her to be. Sure, she
had a lot of characteristics of a maniac, but her poems were spawned from very direct sources.
She was almost obsessed with death and nature and many more themes, but that didn’t mean she
was constantly writing about how she’d take over the world. She had a unique, moving style of
writing, which, to this day, stands out among some of the most well-known, successful poets in
history.
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Bibliography:
"Emily Dickinson." The Poetry Foundation. The Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 18 Mar.
2013.
<http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/emily-dickinson>.
"Emily Dickinson: An Overview." Emily Dickinson: An Overview. Brooklyn University, 25 Feb.
2009. Web. 18 Mar. 2013.
<http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/dickinson.html>.
"Poets.org." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2013.
<http://www.poets.org/m/search.php?prmAuthor=155>.
Database Resource:
Hoefel, Roseanne L. "The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson." Masterplots. Fourth ed.
Pasadena, California: Salem, 2010. 1-6. Galileo. Web. 17 Mar. 2013.
<http://proxygsusgwi.galileo.usg.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/logi
n.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=103331MP413789820000064&site=edslive&scope=site>.