Emily Dickinson －a poet of her own world
Thesis: Emily Dickinson is considered to be one of the greatest and most original poets .She wrote altogether 1775 poems ,of which only seven published in her life time .Emily Dickinson‘s poems are usually based on her own experience ,her sorrows and joys .Her poems often concern the whole human beings, which include death，love, nature, religion. Because of her particularity, Emily Dickinson is to be analyzed as a poetess of her own world in her own way to express her own world in her own ideas and understanding of the world
I. A detailed introduction to the author
A: She lived in a well-educated family
B: She had good education and two teachers influenced her most C: Emily Dickinson‘s character and her life
II. The style of Emily Dickinson’s poems
A: No titles
1. Her poems‘ titles are often adopted by the first line of each poem or part of it
B: Seldom there is punctuation
1. Her manuscripts presented was her use of dashes of different length for punctuation, and her indifference to customary capitalization
C: Her poems are focus on one subject or image.
D: She uses a lot of metaphors and other rhetoric III: Emily Dickinson’s poems A: death
1 I heard a Fly buzz－when I died－ 2 because I could not stop for death 3 I felt a funeral in my brain B: love
1 If you were coming in the fall 2 I had not minded walls 3 Presentiments C: nature
1 A Bird came down the walk 2 My River runs to you 3 Little stone D: religion 1I know that he exists 2 faith is a fine invention IV: conclusion
Emily Dickinson－Ａpoet of her own world
Part I Introduction
No greater contrast can be imagined than Emily Dickinson, whom is still considered to be our greatest and most original poets. Dickinson‘s poetry writing began in the early 1850s. Altogether, she wrote 1,775 poems, of which only seven had appeared during her lifetime. Dickinson called this stream of tiny, aphoristic poems a continuous fragmented ―letter to the world,1‖ a way to bridge her private world with the public. After her death in 1886, her sister Lavinia, empting Emily‘s desk to burn all her correspondence as Emily had specifically directed, was amazed to find almost 2000 poems neatly copied on small pieces of paper conscientious Lavinia was much distressed by her feeling that perhaps Emily had meant these also to be burnt. Fortunately she could not bring herself to destroy what her sister had evidently taken such pains to preserve. With the help of Mrs. M. L. Todd and Thomas Wentworth, the first volume of 115 poems appeared in 1890. Later, two more volumes of poetry and two volumes of letters was were published, with much more to come out in 1914, which finally made Emily Dickinson, especially her withdrawn self, known the outside world. As her poetry continuous to be issued after its first appearance in 1890, her fame has kept rising. She is
now recognized not only a great poetess on her own right but as a poetess of considerable influence upon American poetry of the present century. Because of her particularity, Emily Dickinson is to be analyzed as a poetess of her own idea and understanding of the world. Part A Her family
Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst－a New England village where her grand father had founded Amherst college. Her father was an important lawyer, deeply religious and universally respected as an active leader in all the town‘s civic, educational, political and church activities. Despite his orthodox Puritan beliefs he evidently had a strong unconventional sense of beauty. The story had often been told of his violently ringing in alarm. He calmly pointed to unusual display of Northern Lights, explaining that it was go exceptionally fine he wished no one to miss it! Dickinson‘s mother, Emily Norcross, was a quiet, unassuming woman. She was, in fact, best known for winning numerous cooking awards.
Her father is erudition, mother‘s diligence all played an important role during her writing, and some inspirations of her poetry actually came from her family. Part B
Emily attended the Amherst Academy where she was not only a good student but a very sociable and popular one, known for light－hearted
prank on Valentine‘s day, birthdays, and other such occasions. After her graduation at seventeen she entered the nearby Mt. Holy yoke Female Seminary (now Mt. Holy yoke College). However she was so homesick that she returned to her home－which she never again left for more than a few days at a time－before the end of the school year. Part of the reason for her unhappiness at Mt. Holy yoke, as we learn from her letters, was the religious revival then sweeping New England. The deeply orthodox headmistress concentrated on making it effective in school and Emily was the only student not caught up in the emotional ―rebirth in Christ‖ there. But Emily Dickinson studied the Bible and wrote something about religion although she didn‘t believe it.
When she began writing poetry, Emily had relatively little formal education. She did know Shakespeare and classical mythology and was especially interested in woman authors such as Elizabeth Browning and the Bronte sisters. She was also acquainted with the works of Emerson, Thoreau and Hawthorne. Though she did not believe in the conventional religion of her family, she had studied the Bible, and many of her poems resemble hymns in form.
There were several men who, at different times in her life, acted as teacher or master to Emily. The first was Benjamin Newton, a young lawyer in her father‘s law office who improved her literary and cultural tastes and influenced her ideas on religion; she refers to him as ―a friend,