There is a certain ring of light;
Winter afternoon;
That presses, like a weight
The tunes of cathedral churches.
Heaven gives us evil;
We can find no scar;
But the difference is internal
Where they are signified
Emily Dickinson is known as an ancient and prolific American poet who wrote almost 2000 verses. His labors are intensely private and just as powerful. He wrote it about the pain and loneliness of death in that brevity of style and wit. For these reasons she became one of the most famous American poets of the 19th century.
His Life and His Work
Emily Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts. His family was distinguished and had arrived in America as part of the Puritan emigration two centuries earlier. His grandfather founded Amherst College and his father was a lawyer and Congressman. His mother, deeply religious, was absent and not alive. Dickinson began her education at Amherst Academy and completed her education at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in 1848.
At the age of 20, Dickinson began writing verse. His first published verse appeared in the Springfield Daily Republican in 1852. It read –
Awake nine Muses
sing to me the divine tossing
Solemn braid
and you to my Valentine.
A few of Dickinson’s poems appeared in Samuel Bowles’ Springfield Republican between 1858 and 1868. They were published without an author and were heavily edited, with formal punctuation and titles. These songs include In The Grass (Blood), In His Alabaster Chambers (De Somno) and “Burning Gold Into Purple”.
Dickinson was eccentric to the point of relating to the nuns of Amherst. His life was torn apart by the deaths of his relatives. His contact with the outside world was limited and he maintained most of his friendships through correspondence.
He read the works of John Keats, Thomas Browne, Henry Wordsworth Longfellow, and Shakespeare as well as Elizabethan women writers. Barrett Browning, George Elliott and Charlotte and Emily Bronte.
As he continued to lead a tragic personal life, he imposed exile and deception on himself. She published six volumes of 1800 poems in her lifetime, but she did not feel compelled to publish more widely by her friends or by her own desire for privacy.
Because I could not stop death
He showed me mercy
He kept the vehicle but only for himself
AND IMMORTALITY.
He pushed us slowly, knowing no haste
And he removed me
my labor and leisure;
for civility.
On May 15, 1886, Dickinson died of Bight disease. He read the command to destroy the letters, but this way his family found volumes and volumes of prosaic.
Her Influence
Dickinson’s influence multiplied. His poems reflected his own pains and loneliness, but also offered a new style of writing Script. She used brevity and images well. He used his poetry to reflect the reverence of the world, but also as a means to explain necessary human truths, such as faith, life, death and God.
I am nobody! Who are you?
Are you a nobody too?
Then it is a match for us – I do not say!
You know, they’re driving us away.
How public like a frog
To keep your name alive for a day
To the wondering bog
How sad to be someone!
Dickinson’s work also continued to influence modern poetry because her writing style was unpopular in its time. It used lines, rhymes and sporadic capitals for emphasis. His work inspired others to look beyond stylistic conformity and he is considered one of the founders of a unique American poetic voice.
More information about Emily Dickinson, a copy of the collective works, including the Works of Emily Dickinson, can be found at local library. , online book dealers and bookstores. The web also offers some useful resources about life and work. Check out the following:
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/emilydic.htm
http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/roots/legacy/dickinson/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Dickinson
