Emily Dickinson, who was born on December 10, 1830, in Amherst, Massachusetts, is recognized as one of the most esteemed American poets of the nineteenth century (Benfey, 1). Nonetheless, her exceptional talent and accomplishments were frequently overlooked because society devalued women writers during that era.
Out of 1800 poems, only seven by Dickinson were published. Despite living a simple life, she worked secretly as a talented and creative poet. Her writing style was greatly influenced by seventeenth-century English poets and her puritan background. Undeniably, Dickinson’s writing was characterized by her strong desire for privacy.
Emily Dickinson chose to isolate herself from society at the age of thirty and dedicated her time in secret to writing. She did not get married, as she found fulfillment in her poetry, reading, gardening, and close relationships. Emily had a privileged upbringing as the eldest daughter of Edward Dickinson, who was a prosperous lawyer, congressman, and treasurer of Amherst College for a long period of time.
Emilys father provided her with time, literary education, and the confidence to try free verse. Her mother, Emily Norcross Dickinson, was a submissive and timid housewife who dedicated herself to her husband, children, and household chores. William Austin, the only son of the Dickinsons and also a lawyer, took over as treasurer of the college after his father. Lavina, the youngest child and Emilys sister, remained unmarried and served as the chief housekeeper at home. In 1856, Susan Gilbert, a schoolmate of Emily’s, married Austin and moved into the house next door to the Dickinsons’ home, which they called Homestead.
Emily and Susan’s friendship became strained after Susan got married to Austin. Susan stopped responding to the notes and poems that they used to exchange. Emily’s letters to Susan included lines that have been seen as controversial. One particular line reads, “Susie, will you indeed come home next Saturday, and be my own again, and kiss me like you used to?” (Emily Dickinson). Some historians view Emily’s letters to Susan Gilbert as a reflection of the writing style during the Victorian era. However, Dickinson’s biographer, Rebecca Patterson, interpreted the letters as evidence of Emily’s homosexuality (Sullivan 1). The exact timeline of when Dickinson started writing poetry and what happened to her early poems remains unknown.
Before 1858, only five poems were written by Emily Dickinson. In that year, she started collecting her work into hand-written copies bound with thread to create small packets known as ????. She sent these early poems to her friends in letters or as valentines. Without her consent, one of these poems was published anonymously in the Springfield Republican in 1852. This marked the first publication of any of Emily’s writings.
After 1858, it seemed that Emily was confident in her ability, as she stored her packets in an ebony box, perhaps anticipating their discovery by future readers or publishers. She believed that her writing was ahead of its time and would eventually be recognized and appreciated. However, finding a publisher for her work was always a significant challenge.
During her friendship with Samuel Bowles, the editor of the Republican, Dickinson would regularly send him poems and letters to be published. However, due to Bowles’ lack of understanding of her poems, only two were published, and even those were published without her name attached. Furthermore, these poems were heavily edited and given titles that she did not choose or even know about. In her lifetime, only five other poems were published, all of which were also modified by editors.
In 1862, Dickinson sought counsel from Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a literary critic, regarding her poems. Despite only knowing him through his essays in the Atlantic Monthly, he eventually became, in her words, her “safest friend”. She initiated her initial correspondence with a query about the vitality of her verse, and six years later, she expressed to him that he had unknowingly saved her life. It wasn’t until 1870 that they finally met after she persistently urged for a meeting, and they only crossed paths once more after that.
Higginson confided in his wife after their initial encounter, expressing that he had never been in the presence of someone who drained his energy to such an extent and that he was grateful not to reside near her. What Emily desired was both reassurance and guidance. On occasion, she struggled to comprehend why her diligent efforts were neither valued nor acknowledged. Unbeknownst to Higginson, he inadvertently provided her with the affirmation she sought.
Dickinson’s correspondence with Higginson had a lasting impression on her life. While he advised against publishing, he kept her informed about the literary world. Although he didn’t assist her in developing her unique poetic method, he provided support and guidance during her difficult years. Higginson never fully understood Emily’s exceptional lyrics, leading him to attempt edits both in the 1860s and after her death. Dickinson referred to his editing as “surgery” and eventually reached her limit, but she maintained a willing friendship with Higginson. From 1858 to 1866, she wrote over 1100 poems filled with aphorisms, paradoxes, and unconventional grammar.
The main themes of these poems include love, separation, death, nature, and God, with a particular focus on love. One of her poems contains the line “My life closed twice before its close”, which I interpret as a reference to heartbreak. It’s difficult to determine the true identity of her actual or imaginary lovers, but I doubt that Samuel Higginson was among them.
Emily Dickinson may have had her first romantic interest in Benjamin Newton, a young man who worked in her father’s law office but was unable to afford marriage. Newton left Amherst and passed away in 1853. Around the same time that Samuel Bowles released her initial poem, Dickinson was already beginning her journey towards becoming a recluse. In her early twenties, she embraced the social obligations befitting a prominent citizen’s daughter. However, as she aged, she gradually withdrew from society and by the time she approached forty years old, her seclusion was almost total.
The Years and Hours of Emily Dickinson (1960) by Jay Leydas cites a letter written in 1881 by Mabel Loomis Todd, which describes the impact of Dickinson’s reclusiveness: “I must inform you about the nature of Amherst. It is a woman known as the Myth… She has not left her own residence in fifteen years… She exclusively wears white attire and is said to possess an extraordinarily brilliant mind.”
Emily Dickinson’s seclusiveness is not well understood, but it is speculated that she may have been weary of the world’s rejection. It is possible that Emily chose to enjoy her talents in solitude, dedicating her time to creating and organizing poems that would later be discovered and appreciated by her family and people worldwide. In the final two decades of her life, Dickinson’s output decreased to less than fifty poems per year, possibly due to ongoing eye problems or more likely because she had to assume more responsibilities in managing the household. Her father passed away in 1974, and a year later her mother suffered a paralyzing stroke that rendered her invalid until her death.
There was limited time for poetry or any serious contemplation of marriage with Judge Otis Lord, a widower and long-time family friend of the Dickinsons. This true love between them could possibly have mitigated rumors or allegations about Dickinson’s sexuality. Their love was authentic, and if circumstances had been different, they might have gotten married. Unfortunately, Emily Norcross Dickinson passed away in 1882, and Judge Otis Lord followed two years later.
Dickinson’s health deteriorated significantly after a severe nervous collapse in 1884 and she ultimately passed away on May 15, 1886 as a result of nephritis, a kidney disease. The process of compiling the complete poems of Dickinson is a complex publishing tale that is difficult to summarize in a concise manner. Lavina Dickinson inherited the ebony box containing the manuscripts and sought the assistance of Mabel Loomis Todd and Samuel Higginson in editing them. Regrettably, they decided to make several changes to the syntax, smooth out certain rhymes, trim lines, and provide titles for each poem. The three volumes were published in quick succession in 1890, 191, and 1896.
In 1915, Martha Dickinson Bianchi, the niece of Emily Dickinson, published a collection of poems that were saved by her mother Susan. Over the next three decades, four more volumes of Dickinson’s work were released. The most significant of these was Bolts of Melody in 1945, edited by Mabel Loomis Todd and her daughter. They used the manuscripts that Lavina had never returned. In 1955, Thomas H. Johnson prepared a three-volume edition of Dickinson’s poems and letters for Harvard University Press. It was the first time readers could see the poems as Dickinson had originally written them.
This text is now regarded as the standard version of the 1,774 poems. It is evident that Dickinson did not write to cater to publishers who were unwilling to take a chance on her unique style and original metaphors. She had the same right as Poe and Whitman to enlighten the public, but she never received an invitation to do so. If she had published during her lifetime, public critique could have pushed her further into isolation and even silence. Undoubtedly, the twentieth century has elevated her to the top tier of poets.
