Emily Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830, in Amherst, Massachusetts, to
             Emily Narcross Dickinson and Edward Dickinson. The poet was the second of three
             children, being a year younger than her brother, William Austin, and two years older
             than her sister, Lavinia. (Bloom 187).
             A lively, curious child, Emily described herself as being "small, like the wren"
             with "bold hair, like the chestnut bur" and large brown eyes "like the sherry in the glass,
             that the guest leaves." At school she was considered a bright student whose English
             compositions were, according to her brother, "unlike anything ever heard?and always
             produced a sensation?both with the scholars and teachers?her imagination
             sparkled?and she gave it free reign." A voracious reader, she especially admired the
             craftsmanship of accomplished women writers such as Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot,
             and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. (Kort )
             Dickinson's major themes were spirituality, nature, passion, love, individual
             integrity, and death. Devoting herself entirely to the exploration of these themes in her
             remarkably original voice, Dickinson became one of America's most important and
             Her extraordinary talent was not recognized until after her death, with the
             publication of 1,775 of her poems. Known as "Queen Recluse," Dickinson used poetry
             as a way to communicate with a world from which, except in her imagination, she
             withdrew. Today her deceptively simple verse is praised for its originality, imagery, and
             stylistic complexity. (Cullen-Dupont)
             During the mid-1860s, Dickinson wrote prolifically. In 1862 alone she produced
             more than 350 poems. She was a master at paring down language to its bare
             essentials. The majority of her poems were brief; almost all were untitled. Her writing
             was triggered by simple things?a bird's song, a blade of grass, a particular angle of
             light during winter'to which she pa...