Emily DickinsonEmily Elizabeth Dickinson, was born on December 10, 1830 in the small town of Amherst, Massachusetts. Emily was born into a rich and famous family. Living with her father, mother, sister, and brother, Emily went through emotional problems as a child. His father, Edward Dickinson, was a lawyer, treasurer of Amherst College, and a congressman. He was an orthodox Calvinist and raised his family to be very religious (www.online-literature.com/dickinson). On May 6, 1828, Edward married Emily Norcross (Ferlazzo 11). Emily Norcross was a housewife and also lived very religiously. She has been very depressed most of her life, which has caused a distance between her and the rest of her family. The distance from her mother in fact pushed Emily Dickinson to write that she "never had a mother" (www.kirjasto.sci.fi/emilydic.htm). On April 16, 1829, Emily's brother, William Austin, was born. Emily and her brother were constantly competing with each other because they were both poets. Emily Dickinson's younger sister, Lavinia Norcross Dickinson, was born on February 28, 1833. Lavinia took the liberty of publishing Emily's poetry after her death. Emily attended school at Amherst Academy and Mount Holyoke Girls' Seminary (Ferlazzo 11). 1850 was the year Emily first began writing poetry. His first poem, “Sic Transit Gloria Mundi,” was published in the Springfield Republican (Knapp 14). At the end of the Civil War, Emily Dickinson reduced the people she kept in touch with to only those she knew through Amherst. She dressed only in white clothes and became a recluse. It is believed that Emily may have had an affair with Reverend Charles Wadsworth or Samuel Bowels (www.online-literature.com/dickinson/). While Emily was in solitary confinement, many battles were being fought for the Dickinson family (www.kirjasto.sci.fi/emilydic.htm). Emily suffered great emotional problems in 1861 and it is unknown whether she ever fully recovered. Emily contracted Bright's disease at the age of 54. He died on May 15, 1886. His poems were published by his sister, Lavinia, and his niece, Martha Dickinson Bianchi (www.kirjasto.sci.fi/emilydic.htm). central themes of Emily's poetry were death, love, faith, power, nature, domestic life,...... middle of paper... wounding second stanza with seemingly secular visions (Ferlazzo 39) . In “This is My Letter to the World,” Dickinson shows her true isolation from the world through observation and her disappointed love affairs. There were many clues within the poem that would suggest her desperation after her lovers and friends stopped writing, her only means of communication with the outside world (Ferlazzo 125). “Why I Couldn't Stop for Death” and “I Heard a Funeral in My Brain” show his opposing views of death based on his parents' death, his father's peaceful death, and his mother's sudden and harsh death. Her religious viewpoint lies in “Because I could not stop for death,” having the suitor symbolize God (Knapp 92). “There is a certain slant of the light” shows similar views by using strongly opposing words to show the contradiction of his opinions (Ferlazzo 116). “I Started Early – Took my Dog” and “A bird came down the Walk” show how her observations during her isolation gave her two contrasting views of nature and how her childhood and possible rape influenced her writing ( Knapp 70-73) . In conclusion, Emily Dickinson was an infamous poet whose deep and heartfelt poetry will be remembered forever.