Emily Dickinson
(1830–1886)
A seventh-generation New Englander, Emily Dickinson lived and died in the house in which she was born, in Amherst, Massachusetts. For most of her adult life, she traveled no farther than her own garden.
She wrote her poems in the rhythms she found in her Bible and hymnbook. Although Dickinson sought the advice of a poetry critic, she did not have her poetry published. During her lifetime, several of her poems were published but not with her consent. A few friends knew that she had written some poems, but no one knew just how many. After Emily's death, her sister was amazed to discover almost eighteen hundred poems tied in bundles in Emily's bedroom.
Emily Dickinson might have lacked worldly experience, but she lived an intense inner life. In her imagination, the smallest, most ordinary object or scene could be a sign of something deep and mysterious.
