Emily Dickinson's Lifes Influence on Her Poetry - Research Paper Example

? Emily Dickinson's Life’s Influence on her Poetry Emily Dickinson is quite a well-known American poet though that was not during her lifetime and even not until after a few decades of her death anniversary. She was born on the 10th of December in the year 1830 in Massachusetts, passing away at the age of fifty six years on May 15, 1886. She has written innumerable poetry but most of it seems to have the common themes related to death, religion and even nature to a little extent. Looking at what we know about her life makes it easier to understand her poetry and learn more about her as a person as the incidents of her life are reflected in her work. The Dickinson family was quite prominent in Amherst, the place where they resided at, particularly because Emily’s grandfather was mostly responsible for setting up the Amherst College. Her father Edward worked over here as well for over four decades. During this time, he married Emily Norcoss and had three children with her: William Austin, Emily herself, and Lavinia Norcross. Emily’s relationship with her family was not quite close. Her mother is described as a cold hearted woman who was never there for her children. In fact, when in need of guidance, Emily went to her brother Austin instead who, though not perfect, but was a better replacement. Her father, on the other hand, focused in ensuring that his children had the best education possible. Emily attended the primary school, then the Amherst Academy and later at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary under the tutorship of Mary Lyons. According to account of the school principal, Emily was a “very bright” student with a keen interest in studies (Sewall 342). Other than education, Emily’s father was a strict Puritan and very religious. The Puritan values consisted of the virtues of austerity, simplicity, denying the flesh the pleasures it wants and hard work. All these were consistent in the Dickinson’s family (Sewall 22). Edward is said to have been quite harsh regarding this, enabling Emily to keep him at a distance, too. Even though Emily did not uphold the normal views, she did know all the verses of the Bible by heart, “quoted from it extensively, and referred to it many more times than she referred to any other work... yet in this regard she was not unusual by Amherst’s standards” (Wolff 72). She had her doubts regarding the exact nature of god; however, she did know that He existed if only because of the world she saw around her. Looking the beauty of the nature confirmed her belief, only a godly being would have the ability to create such perfection. She as at war with herself, at her inability to accept everything that she was told as others had done; to follow what she was told blindly, without thinking, without feeling. She is at war to believe in a God who is supposedly there for her but manages to snatches away all those that she knows through death. She has written about all of her inner struggles in her poetry. One such poem is “My River runs to thee” which can be interpreted as Emily being the River which flows into the Blue Sea who is God. She yearns and needs for Him to accept her (Dickinson 118). In “I know that He exists” in which Emily talks about how she believes in such an entity. However, she shows an anger of sorts at Him for not being there when she needs Him. She starts off with her belief in God but ends with having doubts about the reasons behind her faith in Him (Dickinson 270). Then in “Of Course - I Prayed - / And did God Care?” in which she shows her cynical side of how everyone does pray, how she prays to God but how He does not seem to care. She implies at how her wishes are not being fulfilled, whatever she has asked for in her prayers has not been provided to her yet. Yet she continues to pray to Him because He is the reason she exists; without Him, she is nothing but she does deserve an answer to her queries from Him (Dickinson 299). In “This World is not Conclusion” there are thoughts of life after death and how human beings have to work to during their lifespan to get somewhere positive after they die, to be rewarded by God who, though he may not be visible, but clearly existed and who we should trust in. The idea of a God is confusing to all despite the centuries that men have passed pondering over it. It is because of this uncertainty that some may lose the right track, which is so easily done due to the attractions of lives. But, in the end, whatever one does, whatever happens, all of it would lead us to God (Dickinson 384 - 385). Then there is “I reckon - when I count at all” where she brings in nature in account with god who is mentioned after the talk of poets and sun, ending up with how poets can live without either of the two (Dickinson 434 - 435). There are several other such poems with similar themes where Emily wonders about God, religion and her faith. Emily may not be close to either of her parents but she did have a young cousin named Sophia Holland who she shared a friendship with. Throughout her young life, Emily faced many deaths which left her vulnerable. But when Sophia passed away of typhus when Emily was merely thirteen years old, the latter was deeply affected. So much so that she was sent away to Boston to her relatives there until she recovered and retrieved her good spirits. Once she returned, she continued with her studies at the Academy. All these deaths did, however, have a great effect on Emily’s mind. She penned several poems regarding immortality – if one had the power to live forever; she would not have to lose those close to her, or even those that she was just acquainted and/or related to. In her poems, she pines after the loved ones who had left her behind, even her dog whom she called Carlo after reading Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. The poem “Safe in their Alabaster Chambers” has two variations. However, over all, the piece is about the dead lying in their graces, their coffins, away from the problems of the outside world, not affected by anything. But the life outside continues without them, the nature continues being as it was, the flowers bloom, the bees buzz, and so on. No matter our position in our lives, be it some ruler or just a poor man, everyone has to succumb to death eventually, all will end up in similar circumstances inevitably (Dickinson 151 - 152). In “How many times these low feet staggered” in which Emily talks of the consequences of a house wife dying. She can no longer go out to work – the time period during this was the Industrial Revolution – nor can she stay at home to do the household chores. She would never sweep the house clean again. Then she writes of the stillness of the corpse, how, after death, the woman’s hair has lost its texture, her skin turns cold and her bones stiffen (Dickinson 135 - 136). In “I heard a Fly buzz — when I died”, Emily describes the scene of what may be after one dies. The atmosphere is quiet, the eyes filled as the mourners cry for the departed who is greeted by Death. In death, she no longer needs her material possessions but leaves them behind for the others to treasure. And then she starts to lose her senses and dies, removed from the living (Dickinson 358). This picture was probably easily painted by Emily due to the many funerals that she attended with a dash of imagination of what happens when one dies. Another piece titled “Because I could not stop for Death” shows Death as a gentleman who, when he shows up, decides to wait and give one some time to adjust. They travel together; look around at the things for the last time till it is time for one to die. It must be noted that the narrator is not afraid of dying, that eternal life seems to be the next best adventure and not something to be worried off. Over all, this poem has the narrator looking at death in the most positive manner possible rather than being afraid of it as is conventional (Dickinson 546). Then there are several more of such poems that could be mentioned here. Emily was quite a hermit of a person who preferred living in secluded areas, staying at home and meeting only a select few people. Most of her correspondence was carried out through letters which she patiently penned through rather than face to face chats. By the time of her death, she had written over three hundred letters to her best friend Susan Gilbert alone. She was very lonely even if it was forced and used the time to ponder over things which, the critics say, helped her to view the world around her in a way that most do not, which, of course, resulted in the brilliant poems that we read today. Despite her limited interactions with the outside world, Emily did manage to fall in love a couple of times. However, none of this resulted in fruitful relationships but they did lead to her writing poems such as “I cannot live with You” where her love for the person is so passionate that she ends up comparing him to Jesus himself (Dickinson 492 - 493). All her life, Emily Dickinson preferred writing down her thoughts and feelings rather than saying them out loud. She stayed inside the boundaries of her home and yet managed to make her voice heard all over the world and so many centuries later still, too, even if she was not known during her lifetime. She had strong opinions, thoughts which were not traditional and she penned those down. However, some years before her death in the year 1886 when she was only fifty-five years old, she stopped writing and editing her poems. Emily even made her sister promise her to burn all her texts, which Lavinia fulfilled. However, some survived and were published which we can read now for our pleasure. Works Cited Dickinson, Emily. Poems of Emily Dickinson. Ed. Thomas Johnson. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1998. Print. Sewall, Richard Benson. The Life of Emily Dickinson. 2 vols. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1974. Print. Wolff, Cynthia Griffin. Emily Dickinson (Radcliffe Biography Series). 1st. Da Capo Press, 1988. Print. Read More