The American Poetry Of Emily Dickinson And Edgar Allan Poe

When people think of Emily Dickinson, they think of a white dressed, ghostly woman hidden in the corridors of home, writing poem after poem. They do not think of the actual person Emily was. Emily Dickinson grew up in a rich, social, scholarly environment. She could have chosen many paths that would have led her to a completely different life, but because of circumstances, the social, high energy girl with a sense of humor became isolated by her own choice. Though Emily Dickinson’s depression is romanticized, sickness, social life, and death led her to seclusion and deep poems.

A time of influential literary, social, political, and economic movements along with a multitude of famous global events, the 19th century was a period of rapid growth and reform. During this time, the fallout from the Civil War had a profound effect not only on the citizens of America but its writers as well, who had their beliefs vigorously challenged. In particular, Emily Dickinson, one of the most distinguished poets of the 19th century, had close relations with Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson, who fought in the war and frequently advised Dickinson (Emily Dickinson Museum). Commonly known for her extensive use of slant rhyme, lack of titles, and her unusual use of capitalization and punctuation, Dickinson’s brief yet complex poetry has had a significant effect on American literature.

Emily Dickinson was one of the best American poets, but she is very famous for being a secluded writer. Emily Dickinson was born on December 10, 1846 in Amherst, Massachusetts and she died on May 15, 1886 at the age of 55 in Amherst, Massachusetts. Her isolation from the outside world still confuses literary critics and readers of her poetry and letters. There are many theories developed over time about her seclusion. Some people believe her secluded way of life was her own choice but she was very close to her family. Emily Dickinson lived in a happy home and went to a school during her life. Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1830 and lived there all her life most of her life. An introduction into Emily Dickinson’s poetry themes, and discussion about the isolation in her life, and discussion about the isolation in her poetry will be examined in the paper.

Emily Dickinson was an exceptional writer through the mid-late 1800’s. She never published any of her writings and it wasn’t until after her death that they were even discovered. The complexity of understanding her poems is made prevalent because of the fact that she, the author, cannot expound on what her writing meant. This causes others to have to speculate and decide for themselves the meaning of any of her poems. There are several ways that people can interpret Emily Dickinson’s poems; readers often give their opinion on which of her poems present human understanding as something boundless and unlimited or something small and limited, and people always speculate Dickinson’s view of the individual self.

Emily Dickinson and Edgar Allan Poe were histories most proficient writers and their work speaks for itself. They were born in the same time frame and they knew a lot about each other’s work. Their life lessons are what contributed to their remarkable poetry writing and what made them who they are today. Poe and Dickinson do share similar topics in their poetry writing, some are also dissimilar in which all of them focuses a lot on pain, death, love and nature.

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.

The Belle of Amherst, The Woman in White, or The Most Paradoxical of Poets…who can say which pseudonym is most becoming of the late great Emily Dickinson. By virtue of the multitudinous biographical literary works, moreover the wondrous intimacy of Dickinson’s poetry, one could surmise that as readers we comprehend her entirely: yet the most prevalent experience borne from reading Emily’s work, especially if her poems are read successively, is that we come away feeling as though we know nothing at all. Like no author before her and very few after her, Emily Dickinson divulges her hearts hidden secrets while recording what is inexorably one of the most conscientious explorations of the human consciousness ever attempted. Dickinson is known posthumously for her unusual use of form and syntax, but it was her pervasive themes of immortality, death, and madness in her poems that would canonize her as an indelible American character.

Emily Dickinson was a very important poet of the nineteenth century, even though she did not have any of her poems published under her name until after her death. She did have some published anonymously and she put poems in letters to her friends after her isolation. Dickinson 's writing obviously did not stop at this though. “Upon her death, Dickinson 's family discovered 40 handbound volumes of nearly 1800 of her poems, or "fascicles" as they are sometimes called” (Poets Online). She wrote all of these poems for herself with seemingly no intent to get rich or famous off of them, but just to use her intelligence or express her emotions that could not be expressed during this time period. “Much Madness is divinest Sense” is a very good representation of Emily Dickinson and her life; it was full of intelligence, creativity, and rebellion. Emily Dickinson did not assent with the majority, she demurred and created her own status quo.

Until Dickinson was in her mid-twenties, her writing mostly took the form of letters, and a surprising number of those that she wrote from age eleven onward have been preserved. Sent to her brother, Austin, or to friends, these generous communications overflow with humor, narration, invention, and reflection. Indeed, the loss of friends, whether through death or cooling interest, became a basic pattern for Dickinson. Much of her writing, both poetic and epistolary, seems premised on a feeling of abandonment and a matching effort to deny, overcome, or reflect on a sense of solitude. In 1858 Dickinson began assembling her manuscript-books. She made clean copies of her poems on fine quality stationery and then sewed small bundles of these sheets together at the fold. Over the next seven years she created forty such booklets and several unsewn sheaves, and altogether they contained about eight hundred poems. Dickinson sent more poems to her sister-in-law than to any other known correspondent. In those years Dickinson experienced a painful and unclear personal crisis, partly of a romantic nature. The sad and pleading drafts of her second and third letters to the unidentified person she called “Master” are probably related to her many poems about a loved but distant person, usually male. There has been much speculation about the identity of this

Emily Dickinson is said to be one of “America’s greatest and most original poets of all time” (Poetry Foundation). Dickinson grew up in a time where literacy and education were important features of the average person. Because of this great emphasis on learning and literature, Dickinson intended all of her poetry to be based merely on possibility, which is still strongly seen by her readers today (McCormack). Emily Dickinson was easily influenced by events occurring around her and her feelings toward such events, which caused her to write on the themes of nature, death, and spirituality (Borus 44-6). Emily Dickinson was born on December 10th, 1830, in Amherst, Massachusetts, to Edward and Emily Dickinson (Wider 104-5).

Emily Dickinson is considered one of the greatest poets today in America, yet in the 19th century her work was considered inconsequential, unconventional, and unacknowledged amongst many of her peers. Dickinson’s work is unique beyond measure, because it changed the traditional rules of rhythm. Emily Dickinson’s experience of lost loved ones throughout her childhood and on into her adulthood made a significant impact on her life. It impacted her by making her disgruntled towards religion, and obsessing on death. Miss. Dickinson’s writing did closely reflect her life experiences, and emotions. Yet, when examining Dickinson’s poetry closely one can identify it as though she shaped personalities, and occasions

There is a life in Emily Dickinson’s poems, readers have found. Although one may not completely understand her as a legend, a writer, or as a part of literature books, she is considered one of America’s greatest poets. While unknown answers may not be revealed about her, secrets may not be told, nor any new discoveries made, evidence from books and articles showing Emily Dickinson’s experiences and hardships exists. Critic Paul J. Ferlazzo describes her writings: “Many students and casual readers of her poetry have enjoyed hearing tales about her which remind them of storybook heroines locked in castles, of beautiful maidens cruelty relegated to a life of drudgery and obscurity, of genius so great that all

Known for her seclusion from the outer world and introvert nature, Dickinson gave her poetry a unique touch. Dickinson is a major figure in American literature; in her review of the Dickinson Electronic Archives, Martha Smith says, “She is widely regarded as the quintessential American poet, and her work a foundation upon which twentieth-century American poetry is built” (Smith). This is because of Dickinson’s unique style of writing for her era. Her poems were generally written in short lines and lacked titles. It was uncommon in American literature to use slant rhyme along with unconventional capitalization and punctuation. Only after Emily Dickinson’s death in 1886, did the world know about the over 1700 poems written by her (Emily Dickinson’s Life and Work).

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