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Emily Dickinson

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Emily Dickinson’s works are studied by various audiences from high school students to college scholars. Even without striving to hope that her works would impact so many generations, Dickinson has influenced many generations of poets and plays a major role in the development of American Literature. Dickinson did not become famous for her works until after her death in 1886. Not only is Emily Dickinson’s work important to the study of American Literature, most of her writings were composed during the tumultuous Civil War era. The study of her work is important to historians a snap shot into the mindset of American citizens during a violent time in our countries history. As a poet, Dickinson was very private. She has been characterized …show more content…

“Dickinson called Higginson her ‘master’ and repeatedly turned to him for literary advice” (Mead, 149). Because Emily Dickinson lived such a guarded life in Amherst, all critical analysis of her poetic works and existing correspondences can only be categorized as speculation. Save a few publications, the bulk of her creative work was published after her death. In an article from the Emily Dickinson Museum titled “Emily Dickinson and the Civil War”, Dickinson is credited for writing for the purpose of raising money for medical supplies for the Union Army. The Brooklyn-based newspaper, Drum Beat, published three poems anonymously during late February and March of 1864 (“Emily Dickinson and the Civil War”). It would only make sense that Dickinson would offer help to the Union cause due to her connection with Colonel Higginson. It also is characteristic of her reclusive nature to require anonymity. One critic, Timothy Morris, who speculated on Emily Dickinson’s popularity, discounts the idea that Dickinson’s works manifested a secret and repressed voice of Victorian women. In light of the fact, that Dickinson’s work rose quickly once made public and overshadowed many women voices of the period. “Morris speculated that Dickinson posed no threat because she did not publish during her lifetime and was dead before her works entered the critical discourse (Litz & Weigel, 40). Critics from various angles have analyzed Dickinson’s works for generations. She has

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