Emily Dickinson: An Everlasting American Poet

970 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Realism emily dickinson

“Behavior is what a man does, not what he thinks, feels, or believes.” was one of Emily Dickinson’s most famous quotes, showing much of her swaying from Romanticism to a more Realistic view, and changing the standards of writing along with it. Between 1858 and 1864 Emily Dickinson wrote over forty hand bound volumes of nearly 1800 poems, yet during her lifetime only a few were published. Perhaps this is why today we see Dickinson as a highly influential writer, unlike those during her time who did not see the potential. Emily Dickinson wrote most of her works towards the end of the romanticism era, but considered more of a realist, ahead of her time and one to shape the new movement. The main characteristic of Romanticism that Dickinson portrays in her writing emphases of the importance of nature to the Romantics, but she is known as a Realist because of her concern and fascination with death, and the harsh realities of life. Emily Dickinson’s upbringing and early education, along with living in reclusion with death all around her, greatly influenced on of the greatest female poets of all time. Dickinson’s life was fairly normal compared to most, except for a few key parts. Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830, in Amherst, Massachusetts with her family having had deep roots in New England. Her paternal grandfather, Samuel Dickinson, was well known as the founder of Amherst College and father worked at Amherst and served as a state legislator. He married Emily Norcross in 1828 and the couple had three children: William Austin, Lavinia Norcross (Bio.com). Because of her family’s background, and despite being a woman of the time period, many of which were not permitted to receive and education, she went to both A... ... middle of paper ... ...ickinson-9274190>. "Emily Dickinson." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 15 May 2014. . Johnson, Tamara, ed. Readings on Dickinson. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven, 1997. Print. Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 13 May 2014. . Shackford, Martha Hale. "The Poetry of Emily Dickinson." The Atlantic Monthly 3.1 (Jan. 1913): 93-97. Rpt. in Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism. Ed. Janet Mullane and Robert Thomas Wilson. Vol. 21. Detroit: Gale Research, 1989. Literature Resource Center. Web. 16 May 2014. "Significant to American Literature - Emily Dickinson 101." Significant to American Literature - Emily Dickinson 101. Google Sites, n.d. Web. 22 May 2014. .

Show More
Related

  • “Because I could not stop for Death” and “Annabel Lee”: Similarities, Differences, and Their Authors

    1506 Words  | 4 Pages

    Phillips, Elizabeth. " The Histrionic Imagination." Emily Dickinson: Personae and Performance. University Park and London: Penn State, 1919.

    Read More

  • A Brief Biography Of Emily Dickinson

    775 Words  | 2 Pages

    The famous well-known poet, Emily Elizabeth Dickinson, was born on December 10, 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts. Growing up, she was busy with schooling, religious activities, gardening, baking, and exploring nature. Her family was well known in Massachusetts; her dad was a member of the governor’s cabinet and a US Congressman. In 1840, she attended Amherst Academy. At Amherst Academy, she was an excellent student. Many said she caught much attention and was very original in the way she presented herself. Dickinson’s poetry has a great amount of scientific vocabulary and she gained most of her knowledge about it at this academy. Seven years later, she enrolled in Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. At Mount Holyoke, she was academically successful and was very involved. Like most institutions at the time, Mount Holyoke believed that the students’ religious lives were part of responsibility. Dickinson refused to take part of the school’s Christian evangelical efforts. She had not given up on the claims of Christ, but didn’t think it was an important matter.

    Read More

  • Emily Dickinson - Her Life and Poetry

    629 Words  | 2 Pages

    Emily Dickinson’s reclusive life was arguably a result of her proposed bi-polar disorder. This life and disorder unduly influenced the themes of her poetry. She chose not to associate herself with society and volumes of her poems, published posthumously, examine this idea as well as the themes of nature and death. The clearest examples of these themes are presented in the following analysis of just of few of her poems that concurrently exemplify her idiosyncratic style.

    Read More

  • Emily Dickinson

    1559 Words  | 4 Pages

    Emily Dickinson lived in an era of Naturalism and Realism (1855-1910). She lived in a period of The Civil War and the Frontier. She was affected by her life and the era she lived in. She also had many deaths in her family and that’s part of the reason that she was very morbid and wrote about death.

    Read More

  • Emily Dickinson's Use of Humor and Irony

    1318 Words  | 3 Pages

    In conclusion, it can be stated the examples of Emily Dickinson's work discussed in this essay show the poetess to be highly skilled in the use of humor and irony. The use of these two tools in her poems is to stress a point or idea the poetess is trying to express, rather than being an end in themselves. These two tools allow her to present serious critiques of her society and the place she feels she has been allocated into by masking her concerns in a light-hearted, irreverent tone.

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis of Emily Dickinson's Poetry

    1056 Words  | 3 Pages

    Works Cited:.. Dickinson, Emily.

    Read More

  • Emily Dickinson

    876 Words  | 2 Pages

    Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst Massachusetts; a small farming town that had a college and a hat factory. There, she was raised in a strict Calvinist household while receiving most of her education at a boarding school that followed the American Puritanical tradition. She seldom left her hometown; virtually, her only contact with her friends came to be made through letters. As a young woman, Dickinson rejected comforting traditions, resisted male authority, and wrestled alone with her complex and often contrary emotions. Although she was claimed to be a high-spirited and active young woman, Dickinson began to withdraw from society in the 1850's. The many losses she experienced throughout her life, the death of her father, mother, close neighbors, and fr...

    Read More

  • The Reality of Death in Emily Dickinson's Poem, I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died

    2676 Words  | 6 Pages

    Wilner, Eleanor. "The Poetics of Emily Dickinson." JSTOR. The Johns Hopkins University Press. Web. 4 June 2015.

    Read More

  • Theme Of When I Gave Myself To Him

    1868 Words  | 4 Pages

    Dickinson was unique and the “exception” in creating a private relationship with her self and her soul. In “Emily Dickinson and Popular Culture”, David S. Reynolds, a new historicism critic, wrote that it 's no surprise that the majority of Dickinson 's poetry was produced between 1858-1866, “It was a period of extreme consciousness about proliferation of varied women 's role in American culture.” It was a time where women were actively searching for more “literary” ways of self expression” (Reynolds 25). Dickinson was able to express her ideas and beliefs as a woman, something that was scandalous during this time period.

    Read More

  • Emily Dickinson

    1012 Words  | 3 Pages

    Emily Dickinson grew up as a New England Puritan. The values she was taught were all but revealed in the poetry she wrote. How could such strict Puritan parents raise a child to express such anti-Puritan values in her writing as Emily Dickinson did? That question has recently become invalid now that scientists have discovered that Emily Dickinson indeed had a twin sister to whom the credit for all of the poetry is now given. How and why did such a disgrace take place, you ask? It was a complicated situation-one which would probably never happen today!

    Read More

  • Similarities Between The Works Of Emily Dickinson And Walt Whitman

    466 Words  | 1 Pages

    Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, on December 10, 1830 to Edward and Emily Dickinson. By the time of Emily’s early childhood, there were three children in the household. Her brother, William Austin Dickinson,Who was a year and a half older. Her sister, Lavinia Norcross Dickinson, was born in 1833. All three children attended the one-room primary school in Amherst and then moved on to Amherst Academy, the school out of which Amherst College had grown.Dickinson found the conventional religious wisdom the least compelling part of these arguments.

    Read More

  • Nature in the Works of Emily Dickinson

    1384 Words  | 3 Pages

    Dunlap, Anna. "The Complete Poems Of Emily Dickinson." Masterplots II: Women’S Literature Series (1995): 1-3. Literary Reference Center Plus. Web. 17 Nov. 2013.

    Read More

  • Emily Dickinson's Capitalization and Punctuation

    1263 Words  | 3 Pages

    Porter, David T. The Art of Emily Dickinson’s Early Poetry. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1966. Print.

    Read More

  • The Nature of Death in Emily Dickinson's Poems

    2260 Words  | 5 Pages

    Emily Dickinson, who achieved more fame after her death, is said to be one of the greatest American poets of all time. Dickinson communicated through letters and notes and according to Amy Paulson Herstek, author of “Emily Dickinson: Solitary and Celebrated Poet,” “Writing was the way she kept in touch with the world” (15). Dickinson’s style is unique and although unconventional, it led to extraordinary works of literature. Dickinson lived her life in solitude, but in her solitude she was free to read, write and think which led to her nonconformity and strong sense of individualism. Suzanne Juhasz, a biographer of Dickinson, sums up most critics’ idea of Dickinson ideally: “Emily Dickinson is at once the most intimate of poets, and the most guarded. The most self-sufficient, and the neediest. The proudest, and the most vulnerable. These contradictions, which we as her readers encounter repeatedly in her poems, are understandable, not paradoxical, for they result from the tension between the life to which she was born and the one to which she aspired” (1). Dickinson poured her heart and soul into over 1,700

    Read More

  • The Nobody Who Became a Somebody

    785 Words  | 2 Pages

    Kennedy, X. J.. "Two Critical Casebooks: Critics on Emily Dickinson." An introduction to poetry. 13 ed. Boston: Little, Brown, 1966. 343-344. Print.

    Read More

More about Emily Dickinson: An Everlasting American Poet

Open Document