Emily Dickinson
What Made Her Write the Way she did
By Ieva Bytautaite
What Influenced Emily Dickinson?
Growing up in a Puritan society
Her isolated life
Secret, unrequited love
Growing up in a Puritan Society
Emily Dickinson never simply went along with everyone else
She questioned the things that were taught to her in Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, especially the teachings about sin an salvation
Dickinson considered herself “one of the bad ones” (Untermeyer 580) because of her refusal to simply believe everything taught to her
Growing up in a Puritan Society cont.
Many of her poems mention God and religion in a nonconventional way
These ideas are presented in a very unusual way, usually causing a raised eyebrow when read by religious mind, especially those during her time
Her Isolated Life
The isolation from society helped Emily Dickinson’s style evolve into one that can be recognized by the first verse
This isolation “offered the opportunity for her to explore her mind” (Daniels 2) something she found very important
She wrote her poems as a way of expressing her deepest feelings, and was not concerned about publishing them
Secret, unrequited love
The two men that influenced her poems the most were Benjamin Franklin Newton and Reverend Charles Wadsworth
Those of these friendships were strictly platonic
Her desire for more intimacy helped her produce some of her most remarkable poems
Secret, unrequited love cont.
The death of Benjamin Franklin Newton was greatly reflected in her heartfelt poems
Her love for Reverend Charles Wadsworth was never answered and her desire for his love can be seen in her poems
ConclusionAll these influences, and many more, combined helped shape Emily Dickinson’s style into something the world had never seen before
It is this originality that distinguishes her from the other great poets of the 19th and 20th centuries
Works Cited
Untermeyer, Louis. Lives of the Poets. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1959.
Daniels, Patsy J. "The Gap in Emily Dickinson’s Consciousness: Buddhism in Emily Dickinson’s Poetry. (Cover story)." Jackson State University Researcher 21.3 (2007): 1-31. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 15 Nov. 2009.
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