Biography of Emily Dickinson :: essays research papers

Biography TextOne of the finest lyric poets in the English language, the American poet Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) was a keen observer of nature and a wise interpreter of human passion. Her family and friends published most of her piss posthumously.American poetry in the 19th century was rich and varied, ranging from the symbolic fantasies of Edgar Allan Poe by means of the moralistic quatrains of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to the revolutionary free verse of Walt Whitman. In the solitude of her study Emily Dickinson developed her own forms and pursued her own visions, oblivious of literary fashions and unconcerned with the changing national literature. If she was influenced at all by other writers, they were John Keats, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Isaac Watts (his hymns), and the biblical prophets.Dickinson was born on Dec. 10, 1830, in Amherst, Mass., the eldest miss of Edward Dickinson, a successful lawyer, member of Congress, and for many year s treasurer of..... lengthy Biography TextTo be a poet was the sole ambition of Emily Dickinson. She achieved what she called her immortality by total commitment to the task, allowing nothing to deter her or intervene. Contrary to the fabrication that she would not deign to publish her verse, she made herculean efforts to reach kayoed to a world that was not ready for the poems she offered her manner and form were cardinal years ahead of her time. The lines from James Russell Lowells poem "The First Snowfall" atomic number 18 typical of popular taste in Dickinsons time compare them with ones direct following by Dickinson on the same subject (poem 311)The snow had begun in the gloaming,Had been heaping field and highwayWith a silence deep and white.Every hurt and fir and hemlockWore ermine too dear for an earl,And the poorest twig on the elm-treeWas ridged inch deep with pearl.From sheds new-roofed with CarraraCame Chanticleers muffled crow,The stiff rails were subdued to swans down,And still fluttered down the snow.1 stood and watched by the windowThe noiseless work of the sky,And the sudden flurried of snow-birds,