Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a family well
known for educational and political activity. Her father, an orthodox
Calvinist, was a lawyer and treasurer of the local college. He also served in
Congress. Dickinson's mother, whose name was also Emily, was a cold, religious,
hard-working housewife, who suffered from depression. Her relationship with her
daughter was distant. Later Dickinson wrote in a letter, that she never had a
mother.
Dickinson was educated at Amherst Academy (1834-47) and Mount
Holyoke Female Seminary (1847-48). Around 1850 she started to compose poems -
"Awake ye muses nine, sing me a strain divine, / Unwind the solemn twine, and
tie my Valentine!" she said in her earliest known poem, dated March 4, 1850. It
was published in Springfield Daily Republican in 1852.
The style of her
first efforts was fairly conventional, but after years of practice she began to
give room for experiments. Often written in the metre of hymns, her poems dealt
not only with issues of death, faith and immortality, but with nature,
domesticity, and the power and limits of language. From c.1858 Dickinson
assembled many of her poems in packets of 'fascicles', which she bound herself
with needle and thread. A selection of these poems appeared in 1890.
In
1862 Dickinson started her life long correspondence and friendship with Thomas
Wentworth Higginson (1823-1911), a writer and reformer, who commanded during
the Civil War the first troop of African-American soldiers. Higginson later
published Army Life in a Black Regiment in 1870. On of the four poems he
received from Dickinson was the famous 'Safe in their Alabaster Chambers.'
known for educational and political activity. Her father, an orthodox
Calvinist, was a lawyer and treasurer of the local college. He also served in
Congress. Dickinson's mother, whose name was also Emily, was a cold, religious,
hard-working housewife, who suffered from depression. Her relationship with her
daughter was distant. Later Dickinson wrote in a letter, that she never had a
mother.
Dickinson was educated at Amherst Academy (1834-47) and Mount
Holyoke Female Seminary (1847-48). Around 1850 she started to compose poems -
"Awake ye muses nine, sing me a strain divine, / Unwind the solemn twine, and
tie my Valentine!" she said in her earliest known poem, dated March 4, 1850. It
was published in Springfield Daily Republican in 1852.
The style of her
first efforts was fairly conventional, but after years of practice she began to
give room for experiments. Often written in the metre of hymns, her poems dealt
not only with issues of death, faith and immortality, but with nature,
domesticity, and the power and limits of language. From c.1858 Dickinson
assembled many of her poems in packets of 'fascicles', which she bound herself
with needle and thread. A selection of these poems appeared in 1890.
In
1862 Dickinson started her life long correspondence and friendship with Thomas
Wentworth Higginson (1823-1911), a writer and reformer, who commanded during
the Civil War the first troop of African-American soldiers. Higginson later
published Army Life in a Black Regiment in 1870. On of the four poems he
received from Dickinson was the famous 'Safe in their Alabaster Chambers.'
Love's stricken "why"
Love's stricken "why" Is all that love can speak -- Built of but just a syllable The hugest hearts that break. |
What is -- Paradise --
What is -- "Paradise" -- Who live there -- Are they "Farmers" -- Do they "hoe" -- Do they know that this is "Amherst" -- And that I -- am coming -- too -- Do they wear "new shoes" -- in "Eden" -- Is it always pleasant -- there -- Won't they scold us -- when we're homesick -- Or tell God -- how cross we are -- You are sure there's such a person As "a Father" -- in the sky -- So if I get lost -- there -- ever -- Or do what the Nurse calls "die" -- I shan't walk the "Jasper" -- barefoot -- Ransomed folks -- won't laugh at me -- Maybe -- "Eden" a'n't so lonesome As New England used to be! |
There is another sky
There is another sky, Ever serene and fair, And there is another sunshine, Though it be darkness there; Never mind faded forests, Austin, Never mind silent fields - Here is a little forest, Whose leaf is ever green; Here is a brighter garden, Where not a frost has been; In its unfading flowers I hear the bright bee hum: Prithee, my brother, Into my garden come! |