Emily Dickinson 

 

 

About Her Poetry  

 

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson , has written almost 1800 poems in her lifetime. Emily Dickinson’s writings  touched upon a lot of different topics. Her poetry was not about a specific topic or even feeling, it was different each time.  She had spent most of her life writing poetry and shutting herself to the world that she lived in.  Like most writers, Emily Dickinson wrote about what intrigued  and fascinated her.She published around 10 of her own poems before she died and Her poetry was not discovered until her sister found her cabinets containing around 1,147 poems after that there were even more found later on which made a total of almost 1,775 poems.

 

Writing and Influences

 

Dickinson began writing as a teenager. Her early influences include Leonard Humphrey and a family friend named Benjamin Franklin Newton. Newton introduced Dickinson to the poetry of William Wordsworth, who also served as an inspiration young writer. As I have mentioned before she was also influenced by her unnamed lovers and her male friends. Once we look further into some of her poetry we can see that the poem “I came to buy a smile-“ was written about someone she admired. 

 

In my opinion her writing was also impacted by real life experiences. Her poems usually detailed a feeling or thought.  Dickinson’s poetry was greatly influenced by the Metaphysical poets of seventeenth-century England, and her upbringing in Puritan New England, which was known for a conservative and orthodox approach to Christianity. But very important to note here that though her family members joined the church she stayed away. In her words to a friend; ‘I am one of the lingering bad one’s”

 

 

Genre,  Themes and Tone In her Poems 

 

Emily Dickinson wrote a lot about  Love , Death , immortality , hope and nature. She would usually write about the topics that interested her and topics she had a strong opinion about. Sometimes her poems would be serious and sombre, sometimes there would be humor or a touch of sweetness. Many  of her poems  come  across  to readers as difficult and not easily  understandable.  The are about complex emotions and sometimes confused feelings of pain and sadness.

One of the dominant topics in her poem is death or fear and Immortality. I feel the reason Emily Dickinson talks so much about death, fear of death and melancholy is because earlier in her life she has had harsh experiences with loved ones dying and she was also struggling with her poor health conditions which led to  phases of depression.In my opinion it must have been hard for her to suffer serious ill health for a prolonged time  and poor eyesight.She had also  during her lifetime suffered the  loss of  many  near and dear ones. These subdued feelings  were expressed in her poetry.

  We see in many of her poems death is the core topic and she relates to it easily and looks at  it from various different angles. 

 

Emily Dickinson's tone in each of her poems would vary. Her tone could be serious when she is talking about death , immortality and fear or her tone could be funny and witty when she's spoke  about love,nature and moments of joy. 

 

 

Form and Style 

 

Emily Dickinson usually only wrote short poems of only a few stanzas. She would write in first person and sometimes she would write  as the narrator in third person. Emily Dickenson’s poems sometimes  included rhyming words, but usually rhyme was not  very  prominent. Bold statements, strong parting thoughts and deep sadness characterized this beautiful poet’s work.