Immortal Emily
Emily Dickinson is an everlasting female American poet. In the eyes of Thomas Higginson, Dickinson's poetry is written in an "unorthodox" style. Emily writes of Life, Love, and Death, but writes in such a way that it creates a vivid image. She is considered by some to have " an outwardly most uneventful life." (224). Although she was isolated, she was not blind to human nature. She was able to see the world around her for face value. Through her intellect, and her soul she lived a life richer than most.
Thomas Wentworth Higginson received four poems enclosed in a letter from Amherst, Massachusetts. He chose not to publish them but did relay his criticism per Emily request. When she passed away, he, with the permission of Emily's sister, changed her poetry to make it "better". Higginson worked on the mechanics of the poems by smoothing out the rhymes and meter, changing the line arrangements, and rewriting the dialect (Dickinson, 17).
Letter and envelope from Emily Dickinson to Thomas...
Deutsch: Thomas Wentworth Higginson
English: Grave of Emily Dickinson in Amherst, Mass...Even though theses changes take away the emphasis Emily poems contain, the subject matter is what intrigued her readers.
Emily wrote of life, love, and death. Emily allegedly fell in love with a married clergyman in Philadelphia while visiting her father. It is also said that she had a couple of admirers that died in 1862. For her, love is not beautiful.
I had no time to hate, because/ The grave would hinder me, /And life was not so ample I / Could finish enmity. / Nor had I time to love; but since/ Some industry be/ The little toil of love, I thought, / Was large enough for me. (Dickinson, 15)
Dickinson conveyed that she could not harbor animosity because life was too short, and love, what love she had experienced, was more than she could...