Emily Dickinson

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Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830, in Amherst, Massachusetts, and died on May 15, 1886, also in Amherst. She was an American lyric poet whose work has become central to U.S. literature.

She came from a well-established local family. Her father, Edward Dickinson, was a lawyer and politician; her mother, Emily Norcross, more private. Dickinson received formal schooling (Amherst Academy, a year at Mount Holyoke Seminary) but spent most of her life in her family home in Amherst.

Dickinson had wide reading, was interested in the Bible, hymnody, and Romantic and Metaphysical poetry, and she was aware of contemporary writers. Her style is distinctive: short lines, unconventional punctuation and capitalization, frequent use of slant rhyme, dense imagery, compressed thought. She did not belong to a formal “movement” in her lifetime, but critics often place her work as a precursor to modern poetry in America, in part because of how she broke conventions.

Her legacy is large and complicated. During her life she published very little—only about ten poems were published while she was alive, and those often altered by editors to fit norms of the day.

After her death, her sister Lavinia discovered around 1,800 poems in manuscripts and hand-sewn booklets (called fascicles). Over time editions appeared, sometimes heavily edited, but eventually more faithful editions revealed her originality and influence.

Because she challenged the norms of her time—serving her vision rather than convention—and because her poetry explores themes of death, immortality, identity, nature, and inner life, Dickinson is now regarded as one of the most important American poets.

Her voice, which was private and intense in life, now speaks broadly to readers about existence, permanence, and mystery.

You may learn more at the Poetry Foundation and Wikipedia.