Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson

Many writers, especially poets, use experiences in their lives as subjects for their literary works.   The author has a close link with the subject matter of the piece, which forces the reader to make a stronger connection to the work’s content. The emotional level of meaning behind the dialect creates a thorough picture of what the author has gone through. By studying the life of Emily Dickinson, her works become more animated and creates a better understanding of the meaning behind her creativity. In her poems “After Great Pain, A Formal Feeling Comes-” (Meyer, p. 752) and “The Soul Selects Her Own Society-” (Meyer, p. 750), the biographical and reader-response methods of criticism can be used to add depth to Dickinson’s artistic poetry.
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a prominent attorney and highly regarded community leader. Dickinson was close with her father and he was very influential on her life and her writings. She grew up like most wealthy children of the eighteen hundreds and did not become reclusive until her early twenties (Meyer, pp.735-7). Amherst Academy was where she was educated at the secondary level and later went on to study at South Hadley Female Seminary. She was stayed there only one term due to poor health, homesickness, dislike of her professors, her father’s requests, and the strong religious base the school was set upon. Though Dickinson grew up with a strong religious background, she appeared to be quite the skeptic. Emily Dickinson went on to spend the rest of her life secluded in her father’s home where she died in May of 1886 due to an earlier attack of a kidney ailment in 1884 that caused her to spend the last years of her life bedridden. Although, very few of her works had not been published while she was alive, her sister and others published her poetry some time after her death (McClure). Emily Dickinson went on to become a milestone in nineteenth century literature and is still...