The year 1830 is a crucial date in English history. You see, this is
the year that one of the most influential poets in the world was born. Emily
Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, an old fashioned Puritan town.
Rarely did she go outside to meet strangers or walk in the garden. Emily felt
uncomfortable outside of her house and even if she did travel, it wasn’t for
more than one hour. She was greatly impacted by her father, who was a lawyer,
politician, and treasurer of Amherst College. The turning point in Emily’s life
occurred while she was on a business trip in Washington D.C. with her father.
There, Emily met a Presbyterian Minister. Soon enough, she deeply fell in love
with this man , whose name was Charlies Wadsworth. Even though the two were
acquaintances, Emily felt a bond between herself and the much older and already
married minister. However, although Charles was kind to her, he did not return
her love. Eight years later, in1862, Charlies left for San Francisco,
Calafornia with his family. It was about this time that Emily totally secluded
herself from the world and started what would be world famous poems throughout
the future . She adopted her ideas on poetry from her personal life, her
fondness of nature, death, and her dislike of organized religion. War is
occasionally pulled into Emily’s poems also.
Emily seemed truly concerned over happenings in her personal life. So
she mainly focused her writings on the loss of her lover. In “I Never Saw A
Moor,” she describes things that she had never seen or experienced before but
she knows what they are about. Here, Emily is trying to express herself on why
she thinks Charles left her. She is desperately searching for answers. Emily
attempted to teach others a lesson when she wrote “Tell All The Turth, But Tell
It Slant.” In this work, she wishes that Charles had given her a reason why he
left so abruptly. She is stressing that people should tell all the truth, but
lay it down easily so it does not cause strife. “Heart! We Will Forget Him!”
Explains her feelings that she still has for Charles. However, she strived to
put memories of Charles behind her and to move on in life. Emily hoped to see
her lost love in eternity sometime.
On the other hand, her love for Charles was not the only thing that she
wrote about. “The Spider Holds A Silver Ball” explains why we should admire a
spider’s web. A spider took an excessive amount of time to build the silver
ball, or pearl, that we call a web. The spider cherishes its web, so we should
respect that. In the poem “There’s A Certain Slant Of Light,” we must realize
that when hard times attack us, we need to fight back by ourselves. We can not
always depend on nature for help. Emily wrote “The Sky Is Low” to contrast the
similarities of life and nature. She speaks of nature being an uncontrollable
and unpredictable force just like people inhibit these same traits.
Death was certainly not a disclosed subject to Emily. “I Shall Keep
Singing” inspires us all to consider death as a brand new beginning. It says
look forward to death because it will relieve you of all your worries and
frustrations. “The GraveMy Little Cottage Is” also encourages us to battle
through struggles and eventually death will bring us relaxation. In “The Dying
Need But Little Dear,” Emily once again stresses on having a laid back attitude
toward death. She absolutely put faith in ger beliefs about death and where she
was spending eternity. This is probably why Emily was not terrified of death
the least bit.
Despite Emily’s ignorance of death itself, she still had to face it. In
1884, her health gave way at the age of fifty four and she became ill. Two
years later, Emily Dickinson died. All of her poems were found by Tom Higginson,
a close friend of hers, and by her neighbor. They were all neatly organized in
blue folders in her house. Little did she know that her poems would sit the
pace for years to come. Her poems would be examined by students, professors,
and those who had common characteristics to her. To end on a thoughtful note,
remember to follow Emily’s words wisely and “Tell all the truth, but tell it
slant.”
