Emily Dickinson
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Born on December 10, 1830, to parents Edward and Emily Norcross Dickinson, Emily Dickinson was a middle child who would go on to write some of the most splendid poetry of her time. She was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, and attended the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in South Hadley. She was close to her older brother Austin and younger sister Lavinia, and spent her days performing domestic duties like baking and gardening, along with attending school, taking part in church activities, reading books, learning to sing and play the piano, writing letters, and taking walks. These loves of her childhood life would later inspire her to write her poems. When young, Emily was very sociable and formed close bonds with many friends, one who would later become her sister-in-law. Deaths punctuated her childhood, with the loss of many friends and family also deeply affecting her. Later in her life, she slowly retreated from societal mingling and seldom left her house. Writing grew increasingly important to her during the time period that directly coincided with the Civil War. By the time she was 35, she had written more than 1100 poems that reflected her pain, grief, joy, love, nature, art, as well as loneliness. The speakers of her poems generally live in a state of want, but 'her poems are also marked by the intimate recollection of inspirational moments which are decidedly life-giving and suggest the possibility of happiness'.
Around the end of her life, she began to have health problems and grew increasingly weaker. Many of her close acquaintances began to die, one after another. (Her father's death in 1874, her mother's stroke in 1875, her nephew Gib's death at age eight in 1883, Otis Lord's death in 1884, Helen Hunt Jackson's death in 1885.) Faced with this onslaught of grief, she could only say, "The Crisis of the sorrow of so many years is all that tires me" (L873). She then died at age 55 on May 15, 1886, and buried in the town cemetery. After her death, her family discovered 40 hand-bound volumes of nearly 1800 of her poems. These booklets were termed "fascicles" and made by folding and sewing a few sheets of stationery paper and copying final versions of poems in them. They were published after her death, gaining great response and many readers.
Around the end of her life, she began to have health problems and grew increasingly weaker. Many of her close acquaintances began to die, one after another. (Her father's death in 1874, her mother's stroke in 1875, her nephew Gib's death at age eight in 1883, Otis Lord's death in 1884, Helen Hunt Jackson's death in 1885.) Faced with this onslaught of grief, she could only say, "The Crisis of the sorrow of so many years is all that tires me" (L873). She then died at age 55 on May 15, 1886, and buried in the town cemetery. After her death, her family discovered 40 hand-bound volumes of nearly 1800 of her poems. These booklets were termed "fascicles" and made by folding and sewing a few sheets of stationery paper and copying final versions of poems in them. They were published after her death, gaining great response and many readers.