{\b Emily Dickinson}.

{\b Date of Birth}.: 1830

{\b Date of Death}.: 1886

{\b Works}.

American poet. Began writing poetry, according to her own declaration, in the 
winter of 1861-62. All but a handful of her poems were unpublished in her 
lifetime. She left over a thousand manuscripts which were gradually collected 
and published by her sister Lavinia. The three volumes brought out between 
1891 and 1896 revealed poems of a deeply personal and spiritual nature and 
showed startling originality. After this, further collections of her work 
emerged, as The Single Hound (1914), and Bolts of Melody (1945).  Her letters 
and selected commentaries on her life and work were edited by Thomas H.Johnson 
and published in 1958.

{\b Featured Works}.

'The Only News I Know', 'My Life Closed Twice Before it Closed', 'Snake', 
'Success is Counted Sweetest', 'Because I Could Not Stop for Death', 'She 
Sweeps With Many-Coloured Brooms', "I'm Nobody! Who are You?", "I Went to 
Heaven", "There's Been a Death in the Opposite House", "I Died for Beauty, but 
was Scarce", 'The Mystery of Pain', 'Summer Shower', 'A Thunderstorm', "The 
Bustle in a House", 'A Book', 'The Pedigree of Honey', 'I've Known a Heaven 
Like a Tent', "This Quiet Dust was Gentlemen and Ladies", "I Felt a Funeral in 
My Brain", "After a hundred years", "As imperceptibly as grief", "Elysium is as 
far as to", "Presentiment is that long shadow on the lawn", "She rose to his 
requirement", "There came a wind like a bugle", "The sky is low, the clouds are 
mean".
 
{\b General Comment}.

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, the daughter of 
a lawyer. She was educated at Amherst Academy (1834-47) and Mount Holyoake 
(1847-8). In her early years she appears to have been a bright and sociable 
young scholar, but in her twenties she began to withdraw from the outside 
world. By her forties she had become a complete recluse, refusing to leave her 
house and shunning all contact with strangers. A mystic by inclination, she 
wrote much in secret, producing over two thousand poems, only seven of which 
are known to have been published in her lifetime. 

Her personal life remains something of a mystery although there is the 
possibility that her seclusion might have been prompted by a failed love 
affair. Her work certainly reflects a deep inner struggle spanning many years 
and her verse is full of powerful allusions to storms, volcanic eruptions and 
imprisonment.