Of Death and Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson's obsession with death in her poetry has fascinated people for over a century. Her use of dark, morbid language was relatively unique in mid-nineteenth century poetry, especially for a woman. The subject of these poems ranged from just wondering about death or the processes leading up to it, to Emily actually lying on her own deathbed. Throughout her life, she experienced extensive personal struggles, including her own battle with long-term illness, and the death of many loved ones. This paper will discuss how Emily Dickinson's life affected her poetry and also offer an interpretation of one of her most famous "death poems."

Emily was born in 1830 to an educated Puritan family in the small farming town of Amherst, Massachusetts. Given a well-rounded education in her childhood and teens, she went off to seminary school, but illness brought her home after the first year. She soon settled in to the life of "mother's helper" and oldest daughter. Being part of the social crowd in her small town was important, but Emily often stayed home to tend to her sick mother.

She befriended two men during this important time in her life. Leonard Humphrey was the principal of the local school, and Benjamin Newton wor

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No one knows this for sure, however, Emily's life experiences certainly had an impact on this piece of poetry. In her short years, Emily faced death numerous times, but it was only after her own that her broken heart could finally be at peace.

Emily's last years were extremely heart-wrenching; her mother died in 1882, her favorite eight-year-old nephew Gilbert in 1883, and Judge Otis Lord in 1884. They became friends and Samuel published one of Emily's poems. Emotionally traumatized, she began to pull away from societal life. Finally in 1860, after Emily had been sending Samuel poems indirectly, he wrote an article in his paper about being sent poems that were "unhealthy" and "the product of lonely women.

After the late 1860s, Emily never set foot outside of her family's property again. This woman could have been any woman in Emily's life, including her mother or herself; it also could have been just a random generalized woman. The following indented single-spaced lines make up the poem, broken up into six stanzas, taken from Thomas Gale's Poets Corner (see footnote). It shows the progression of age as their carriage goes along. " Even though he had not named anyone in particular in his article, Emily knew it was about her, and took it deeply personally.

During these years she was also introduced to Samuel Bowles, editor of the Springfield Republican.

Through all this, Emily kept writing. This is one speculation as to the massive output of poems at this time; "That year also she began her communication with [Thomas Wentworth] Higginson of the Atlantic Monthly, encouraged by an article he had written as advice to a prospective poet.

As normal people don't go willingly towards Death, it usually comes to them.

Approximate Word count = 1519
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

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