Emily Dickinson was born 1830 to Edward and Emily Dickinson in Amherst Massachusetts. Amherst was a Puritan town in New England and “encouraged a Calvinist, Orthodox, and Conservative approach to Christianity”. She had two siblings by the names of William Austin Dickinson, Lavinia Norcross Dickinson. Her father was an amazing man and a model citizen. He was a lawyer and “served a single term as a representative from Massachusetts in U.S. congress, elected as state legislature and state senate. He was also treasurer of Amherst College, secretary to the fire society, and chairman of the annual cattle show” (“Emily Dickinson” Poetry Foundation). Little information is known about her mother but letters have revealed that she was “a young woman
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She took the rules of traditional poetry and challenged them (cite). Since she had few visitors, the people whom she came into contact with had a huge impact on her poetry. One person in particular was Reverend Charles Wadsworth. She had first met him on a trip to Philadelphia, and he left shortly after to go the the West Coast. His “departure gave rise to the heartsick flow of verse from Dickinson in the years that followed” (“Emily Dickinson” Poetry.org) Dickinson also had a fascination with science and took her work very seriously and encouraged others to do so too (“Emily Dickinson” Poetry Foundation). This had a large impact on her poetry.
Dickinson published very few works throughout her lifetime. “her work circulated among family and friends” and ten of her poems were published in newspapers, most likely without her knowledge (“The Publication Question”). After her death her family discovered “forty handbound volumes of nearly 1,800 poems” that she had written during her lifetime. She created these volumes by “by folding and sewing five or six sheets of stationery paper and copying what seem to be final versions of poems” (Poets.org). Many of these booklets went on to be published and have become the famous poems of Emily Dickinson
She took the rules of traditional poetry and challenged them (cite). Since she had few visitors, the people whom she came into contact with had a huge impact on her poetry. One person in particular was Reverend Charles Wadsworth. She had first met him on a trip to Philadelphia, and he left shortly after to go the the West Coast. His “departure gave rise to the heartsick flow of verse from Dickinson in the years that followed” (“Emily Dickinson” Poetry.org) Dickinson also had a fascination with science and took her work very seriously and encouraged others to do so too (“Emily Dickinson” Poetry Foundation). This had a large impact on her poetry.
Dickinson published very few works throughout her lifetime. “her work circulated among family and friends” and ten of her poems were published in newspapers, most likely without her knowledge (“The Publication Question”). After her death her family discovered “forty handbound volumes of nearly 1,800 poems” that she had written during her lifetime. She created these volumes by “by folding and sewing five or six sheets of stationery paper and copying what seem to be final versions of poems” (Poets.org). Many of these booklets went on to be published and have become the famous poems of Emily Dickinson