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Emily Dickinson

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born

December 10, 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts, The United States

died

May 15, 1886

gender

female

genre

Poetry

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Emily Dickinson was an American poet who, despite the fact that less than a dozen of her nearly eighteen hundred poems were published during her lifetime, is widely considered one of the most original and influential poets of the 19th century.

Dickinson was born to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life. After she studied at the Amherst Academy for seven years in her youth, she spent a short time at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary before returning to her family's house in Amherst. Thought of as an eccentric by the locals, she became known for her penchant for white clothing and her reluctance to greet guests or, later in life, even leave her room. Most of her friendships we...moreEmily Dickinson was an American poet who, despite the fact that less than a dozen of her nearly eighteen hundred poems were published during her lifetime, is widely considered one of the most original and influential poets of the 19th century.

Dickinson was born to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life. After she studied at the Amherst Academy for seven years in her youth, she spent a short time at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary before returning to her family's house in Amherst. Thought of as an eccentric by the locals, she became known for her penchant for white clothing and her reluctance to greet guests or, later in life, even leave her room. Most of her friendships were therefore carried out by correspondence.

Although Dickinson was a prolific private poet, fewer than a dozen of her nearly eighteen hundred poems were published during her lifetime.The work that was published during her lifetime was usually altered significantly by the publishers to fit the conventional poetic rules of the time. Dickinson's poems are unique for the era in which she wrote; they contain short lines, typically lack titles, and often use slant rhyme as well as unconventional capitalization and punctuation.Many of her poems deal with themes of death and immortality, two recurring topics in letters to her friends.

Although most of her acquaintances were probably aware of Dickinson's writing, it was not until after her death in 1886—when Lavinia, Emily's younger sister, discovered her cache of poems—that the breadth of Dickinson's work became apparent. Her first collection of poetry was published in 1890 by personal acquaintances Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd, both of whom heavily edited the content.

A complete and mostly unaltered collection of her poetry became available for the first time in 1955 when The Poems of Emily Dickinson was published by scholar Thomas H. Johnson. Despite unfavorable reviews and skepticism of her literary prowess during the late 19th and early 20th century, critics now consider Dickinson to be a major American poet.

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Average rating: 4.18 · 19,190 ratings · 830 reviews · 181 distinct works

	The Complete Poems by Emily Dickinson, Thomas H. Johnson (Editor) 4.21 avg rating — 13,803 ratings — published 1924 — 42 editions	My rating:
	Selected Poems 4.07 avg rating — 2,562 ratings — published 1890 — 121 editions	My rating:
	Final Harvest: Poems by Emily Dickinson, Thomas H. Johnson (Editor) 4.24 avg rating — 345 ratings — published 1962 — 3 editions	My rating:
	Selected Letters by Emily Dickinson, Thomas H. Johnson (Editor) 4.25 avg rating — 191 ratings — published 1971 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Dickinson: Poems 4.21 avg rating — 152 ratings — published 1993 — 3 editions	My rating:
	Selected Poems and Letters 4.18 avg rating — 222 ratings — published 1959 — 5 editions	My rating:
	Master Letters of Emily Dickin by Emily Dickinson (Editor), Emily Dickinson 4.33 avg rating — 72 ratings — 3 editions	My rating:
	Open Me Carefully: Emily Dickinson's Intimate Letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson by Emily Dickinson, Ellen Louise Hart (Editor), Martha Nell Smith (Editor) 4.16 avg rating — 75 ratings — published 1998 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Im Nobody Who Are You by Emily Dickinson, Rex Schneider 3.83 avg rating — 81 ratings — published 1978 — 7 editions	My rating:
	Poems Selected by Emily Dickinson, Ted Hughes (Editor) 4.32 avg rating — 60 ratings — published 1968 — 4 editions	My rating:

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Quotes by Emily Dickinson

“Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all.”
― Emily Dickinson

tags: feathers , hope , inspirational , souls

2,735 people liked it

“If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain.”
― Emily Dickinson

tags: life , love

2,031 people liked it

“That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet.”
― Emily Dickinson

tags: life

1,835 people liked it

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Who is your favorite author of poems?

Shel Silverstein

1 vote, 33.3%

J.R.R. Tolkien

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A.A. Milne

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William Shakespeare

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Bruce Lansky

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Edgar Allen Poe

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Phillis Wheatley

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Emily Dickinson

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Mary Olliver

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Carl Sandburg

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Robert Frost

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Langston Hughes

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Emily Dickinson

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