Criticism Of Emily Dickenson

Emily Dickinson chose not to conform to the madness of society and shut out many of the people that she felt wanted to change her. She wrote a poem called “The Soul Selects Her Own Society,” in this poem she writes about how the soul shuts certain people out and confides in only one person. Emily Dickinson writes “Then- close the Valves of her attention- Like Stone-,”

Emily Dickinson, recognized as one of the greatest American poets of the nineteenth century, was born December 10, 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts (Benfey, 1). Dickinson’s greatness and accomplishments were not always recognized. In her time, women were not recognized as serious writers and her talents were often ignored. Only seven of her 1800 poems were ever published. Dickinson’s life was relatively simple, but behind the scenes she worked as a creative and talented poet. Her work was influenced by poets of the seventeenth century in England, and by her puritan upbringing. Dickinson was an obsessively private writer. Dickinson withdrew herself from the social contract around the age of thirty and devoted herself, in secret, to writing.

Emily Dickinson, born in 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts, is regarded as one of America’s best poets. After a poor experience at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, where she was regarded as a “no hope,” her writing career took off in full swing. Although her family was more conservative, regular churchgoers, and socially prominent town figures, Dickinson preferred a socially reserved lifestyle that renounced the traditional values of her day (Baym, 1189-93). The iconoclastic spirit pervasive in Emily Dickinson's poetry reflects her conflict with the traditions of New England society.

“Success is counted sweetest, by those who ne’er succeed.” -Emily Dickinson. When Dickinson speaks of the pain of failure and the satisfaction of victory, she speaks from experience. The hermit-like poet wrote nearly 2,000 poems by the time she died at 55. Emily Dickinson was a reserved poet and her work was largely unpopular during her life. She wrote under the topics of mortality and romance, however her works are always questioned of originality and for their vague nature.

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson is one of the best poets in America. She is known for her uncommon way of writing poetry. There was a great deal of problems going on in her life. She spent mostly her entire life living in her home and only left unless she needed to do so. Unlike other poets, she did not have any order to her writings. She just wrote what she was feeling. Her work was anonymously published and later became known after her death.

The novel’s opening words (Book 1, Chapter 1) “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity. . .” Provided, Dickens conveys the relationship between poverty and aristocracy through the use of parallelism, paradox, and other poetic techniques. In addition to, Dickens's technique functions not only to draw opposites, but to reveal hidden parallels.

The fact that Lucie is great at “homemaking” further supports the claim that Dickens’ text is patriarchal. Also,

Instead of focusing on religion, Emily chose to focus on reading, especially Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Poems that was given to her by her male acquaintance, Benjamin Newton. Benjamin Newton also introduced Emily to the poetry of William Wordsworth and greatly inspired Emily’s beginnings as a writer (“Emily Dickinson Biography,” n.d.). While at home, Emily also cared for her sick mother and spent most of her time and energy focusing on renewing her mother’s health with the help of her sister, Lavinia. However, Emily and Lavinia’s mother passed away after many years of suffering due to a stroke (“Emily Dickinson Biography: American Poet and Author,” n.d.).

This novel shows Dickens’ belief in the possibility of resurrection and transformation, and it is shown to the readers on both a personal and societal level. The very beginning of the

Let’s play a game. Close your eyes. Now, think of some of your favorite poems. Can you remember the poets who created them? Did you name off Edgar Allen Poe, Shakespeare, and Robert Frost to name a few? I imagine that the majority of people didn’t remember Emily Dickinson. Emily Dickinson was a talented poet who used her previously devastating personal experiences to enhance her poems.

“Emily Dickinson.” Poets.org: From the Academy of American Poets. Copyright 1997-2012. Retrieved November 21, 2012. http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/155

Emily Dickinson was one of the most well-known poets, being considered as one of the most leading nineteenth-century poets. She commanded a remarkable cleverness of style and honor of idea. Only ten of Dickinson’s nearly one thousand, eight hundred poems are known to have been published in her entire lifetime. Devoted to private quests, she sent hundreds of poems to friends and correspondents while apparently keeping the greater number to herself. She habitually worked in verse forms suggestive of hymns and ballads, with lines of three or four stresses. She freely ignored the usual rules of versification and even grammar, and in the intellectual content of her work she came off exceptionally bold and original. Her verse is distinguished by

Emily Dickinson lived in a time period where there were struggles to reconcile between faith and science. What makes Emily Dickinson stand out is not because of the certain style of unique methods that she incorporates in her poems, rather, it is because of her personality as a rebel that sets her aside from the rest of the

Emily Dickinson was a poet who used many different devices to develop her poetry, which made her style quite unique. A glance at one of her poems may lead one to believe that she was quite a simple poet, although a closer examination of her verse would uncover the complexity it contains.

Emily Dickinson is one of the most interesting female poets of the nineteenth century. Every author has unique characteristics about him/her that make one poet different from another, but what cause Emily Dickinson to be so unique are not only the words she writes, but how she writes them. Her style of writing is in a category of its own. To understand how and why she writes the way she does, her background has to be brought into perspective. Every poet has inspiration, negative or positive, that contributes not only to the content of the writing itself, but the actual form of writing the author uses to express his/her personal talents. Emily Dickinson is no different. Her childhood and adult experiences and culture form