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Critical Essay on Author: Emily Dickinson

Introduction

Despite the fact that only seven of Emily Dickinson's (December 10, 1830 - May 15, 1886) poems were published during her lifetime, all of them were published anonymously with some of them even without the consent of author. Today, Dickinson is, without question, widely considered as a premier poet of America. In her literary work, Dickinson explored many subjects including death, nature, love and mortality. As she sharpened her skills in lyrics format, Dickinson developed a literary style, which was unique and characterized by somewhat compressed expression, while exploring the possibilities of language (Fagan, pp. 70,75,128).

Dickinson's complete collection of poems was published by Thomas H. Johnson in 1955, which invited a renewed interest of contemporary literary scholars and critics in her work. Since then, modern criticism mainly focused on the language, style, structure and diverse nature of themes used by Dickinson. There are also those critics and scholars who have examined her work from a feminist perspective. Regardless of angle of critique and viewpoint modern scholars may adopt, it is necessary to have knowledge of Dickinson's life experiences in order to understand how her life experiences have shaped her literary work.

Biographical Sketch

Emily Dickinson was born to prosperous lawyer in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1830. According to available sources, most of Dickinson's school work often interrupted by her time spent in home while learning different domestic chores. Her primary schooling began in 1835, which she continued for the next four years. It is after her primary school that she went to attend Amherst Academy where she studied from the year 1840 to 1847.

In next phase of her education, she went to Mount Holyoke Female Seminary where she spent one year. This was the place where Dickinson was greatly influenced by New England Puritanism. This Puritanism together with Unitarian culture in which she was brought up left a profound impact on Dickinson's poetry, the structure she used, her unique lyric form and the content of literary work - many of her poems have the theme of religion. Despite all these external influences, Dickinson's personal beliefs and faith have also shaped her work and she remained an agnostic throughout her life.

After her stay at Mount Holyoke, Dickinson returned home where she spent the rest of her with her family. According to the biographers, she visited Philadelphia, Boston and Washington, D.C. for a brief period of time. Some speculate that during her brief say in Philadelphia, Dickinson's had an affair with a married minister named Reverend Charles Wadsworth (Strickland, pp. 79,115,123). They are of the view that her later disappointment from the unsuccessful affair had resulted in her subsequent separation from the society. In the subsequent years, her isolation intensified and during the last years of her life, she refused to have visitors and never left her home. Dickinson's died of Bright's disease in 1886.

Major Literary Works

During her writing career, Emily Dickinson composed nearly eighteen hundred poems, with most of them having brief lyrics. ...