One of Emily Dickinson’s most well-known poems begins, “I’m Nobody! Who are you?” In her lifetime, Dickinson may indeed have been “Nobody.” Her accomplishments were barely known by her family, never mind the rest of the country, until after her death. Today, however, we know how truly impressive and worthy of fame Dickinson is. From her birth on December 10th, 1830, to her death on May 15th, 1886, Dickinson grew like one of the flowers from her beloved garden and developed into one of America’s finest poets even now. From inside her home in Amherst, Massachusetts, Dickinson birthed hundreds of poems beyond her time period, all the while surviving heartache after heartache. Because of her modern lifestyle that set her apart from how women in her time period were expected to behave, her resilience in the face of emotional hardships, and her insurmountable skills as a poet, Emily Dickinson is an American icon.
Juxtaposed to the expectations for women in the 1800s, Emily Dickinson lived a strange life. Today it’s clear that her life was actually just a more modern one. For example, women typically married a man, had children, and then spent their lives taking care of the house and its inhabitants. Dickinson, on the other hand, …show more content…
Her friends and family knew she wrote poetry, and as previously discussed, some of her friends even helped her improve her poetic abilities, but few of them knew the extent of Dickinson’s dedication to poetry. A few of her friends even disapproved of her poetry, due to how different it was from the typical style of poetry in the 1800s. Dickinson “crafted poetry in experimental form that anticipated modern style” (“Dickinson, Emily”). Dickinson’s usage of wit, paradoxes, ambiguity, irony, and playfulness also set her poems apart from others of her time period, making her tendency towards modernness a prominent characteristic of
Juxtaposed to the expectations for women in the 1800s, Emily Dickinson lived a strange life. Today it’s clear that her life was actually just a more modern one. For example, women typically married a man, had children, and then spent their lives taking care of the house and its inhabitants. Dickinson, on the other hand, …show more content…
Her friends and family knew she wrote poetry, and as previously discussed, some of her friends even helped her improve her poetic abilities, but few of them knew the extent of Dickinson’s dedication to poetry. A few of her friends even disapproved of her poetry, due to how different it was from the typical style of poetry in the 1800s. Dickinson “crafted poetry in experimental form that anticipated modern style” (“Dickinson, Emily”). Dickinson’s usage of wit, paradoxes, ambiguity, irony, and playfulness also set her poems apart from others of her time period, making her tendency towards modernness a prominent characteristic of