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Emily Dickinson's Writing Style and how it developed Emily Dickinson is by far one of the most interesting poets in American literature, and her popularity is largely based on her writing style. Emily Dickinson's authentic writing style can be directly correlated to the fact that the majority of her work was not published or even discovered until after her death. Without the concern of success / failure or outside editing, Dickinson was able to create her own unique and uninhibited writing style. Her life experience also helped her shape her writing style and create her poetry. Although she was not quite as attractive as her younger sister, she did have a handful of men interested in her. Many of these loves ended in deceit and sorrow.
One of the first supporters of her writings was T. W. Higginson. He was an essayist and contributor to Atlantic Monthly, which was a local newspaper (Sewall 9). One of Dickinson's inspirations included Reverend Charles Wadsworth who was her spiritual preceptor for several years. Samuel Bowles, editor of the Springfield Daily Republican, was important as an object of feeling.
Higginson was Emily Dickinson's literary guide, critic, and surgeon of her poetry. One of the most important figures in Dickinson's poetic life, other than T. W. Higginson, was Ben Franklin Newton (Longsworth 63). Ben was ten years older than Dickinson and it is possible that the age difference helped her writings. He introduced her to such writers as Lydia Maria Child, Brontes, Shakespeare, and other great writers.
Dickinson first ser! i ously started experimenting with poetry with Ben (Longsworth 63). After a long relationship, strictly professional, Dickinson read in a newspaper in 1853 that Ben had died (Longsworth 77). Bens death was very depressing and a great loss. He was both an inspiration and her guidance (Longsworth 78). After Bens death Dickinson looked for guidance and found it in Samuel Bowles.
He was a very important influence for Dickinson was Samuel Bowles. When Dickinson first turned to Samuel he argued that he was too sickly to be able to help her. However he took on the job of supporting her and criticizing her writings as a friend (Longsworth 92). Within a short period of time Samuel was able to penetrate her defensive attitude and they became good friends (Longsworth 93). Many believe that Dickinson was in love with Samuel.
And could have been the lover that was like a secret. There has never been enough information to say exactly who the man was. Samuel left for Europe! in 1862. Dickinson was upset she had again lost a love and spiritual leader (Longsworth 110).
Samuel Bowles died in Springfield in 1878 after a long and serious illness (Longsworth 145). Some of her best poems came out of the times after a dramatic event, such as the death of these important people. Now in her thirties, Dickinson lost touch with many of her old friends, including Asian Root, and made new friends with the same personalities as herself (Longsworth 83). After time she began liking her poems more and more. And began keeping booklets of her poems (Longsworth 90). She protested against the publication of her poems.
Not till after her death did majority of her work become published. Soon after her death, her sister Lavinia found a locked box with about seven hundred short poems. She had these published. After all her emotional turbulence Dickinson was writing 20 poems a year (Longsworth 116). In 1872 Dickinson's father retired as treasurer of Amherst College and Austin succeeded him (Longsworth 136). Soon afterwards Edward Dickinson was elected for State Legislature to fight for the Vermont Central Railway to the Amherst region (Longsworth 137).
In 1874 Edward Dickinson died on his way to give a speech to Legislature. He died alone in strange su! rounding (Longsworth 137). Dickinson's mother had a stroke that left her partially paralyzed and Dickinson and her sister where forced into taking care of their mother.
While doing this they formed the strongest bond they ever shared (Longsworth 142). In October of 1883, Austin and Susan's youngest child, eight years old, died from typhoid fever. Within a few weeks Dickinson was ill from extreme sadness. The doctors said she had 'Nervous prostration. In March 1884, Judge Lord died. After this tough time she suffered from a nervous collapse.
Her health could be monitored in her letters, or a few lines of verse, when she had spurts of energy she would right a little more and more expressively. Her health improved a little in the spring of 1886. In May, she became ill again. And on the thirteenth of May she passed into a coma, paralysis as a consequence of Bright's disease. She died on May 15, 1886 lonely still. In 1859 Dickinson had written seventy-five poems mostly which were about friendship, nature, death, and religious figures (Longsworth 90).
Emily Dickinson was the only Anglo-American poet of her century whose work exhibits the perfect literary position in which is possible, the fusion of sensibility and thought (Sewall 23). Dickinson's style is an Emersonian, individualism clear enough (Sewall 12). The subject that just about any man in her poems can be read to be is God. He was referred to as a noted clergyman and in another as burglar, banker, and father. What distinguished her writings and them excel was her poems about nature (Sewall 13). Many believe Dickinson was not a very intelligent poet but merely a little spurts of knowledge (Sewall 15).
They say that her was as erratic as it was brilliant. She was very unorthodox in her writings and didnt go by accepted forms of writings. She made her own grammar, rhyme, and meter (Sewall 15). Her poetry unlike most poetry di! d not have anymore than verbal meaning, so it was not really read widely (Sewall 16).
Dickinson's atmosphere of intelligence, famed poets, and turmoil, such as the Civil War, helped to shape her writings (Sewall 23). Dickinson did not reason with the way she saw the world she merely saw it and put it into her writings (Sewall 25). Some critics say that her poetry is a magnificent personal confession, blasphemous, and in self-revelation its honest, almost obscene (Sewall 27). After reading her poems your mental image of Emily Dickinson was a dominant spinster whose sweetness was formidable (Sewall 19). Surprisingly enough even though Dickinson was a recluse her writings were rich and varied. Many believe that she was able to write rich poetry was because she was not a virgin.
This is easily agreeable seeing all the relationships she was involved in. Emily Dickinson, to date, has written 1, 775 poems. In 1955 Thomas H. Johnsons three volume edition of her poems he!
hoped to spark a new interest in her poetry and bring more of her poems to light. Although it did not work it was the most complete collection of her poems (Longsworth 1). Bibliography: Anderson, Robert, et al. , eds. Elements of Literature. Orlando: Harcourt Brace Jovanovic h, Inc. 1993. Longsworth, Polley.
Emily Dickinson Her Letter to the World. New York: Thomas Y Crowell Comp. 1985. Sewall, Richard E. Emily Dickinson. New Jersey: Prentice Hall Inc. 1993.
Share, William H. New Poems of Emily Dickinson. London: University of North Carolina Press. 1993.
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Research essay sample on Emily Writing Style And How It Developed
