Weekend Writing: Celebrating Emily Dickinson

When I first started this blog in January 2016, I wrote a blog post celebrating women writers. Looking back now, I wish I had included more information about my favorite poet, Emily Dickinson, in that post. I should have celebrated her more. I should have shouted to the mountaintops that I love Emily Dickinson.

But, I guess I can do that now: I LOVE EMILY DICKINSON.

Emily Dickinson (photo/Boyle Poetry).

Born on this date (December 10) in 1830, Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was more than just a poet; she was a prolific private poet. I think Emily is often the punchline in jokes about reclusive individuals. It's true; she was a reserved poet who hardly, if ever, left her house.

She wrote, but she wasn't famous when she was living. Fewer than a dozen of her nearly 1,800 poems were published during her lifetime. The work that was published during her lifetime was often edited and altered to fit into the conventional poetic rules of the time period.

Although her acquaintances were most likely aware of her writing, it wasn't until her death in 1886 when her sister, Lavinia, discovered her hidden piles of poems. Thankfully, her sister saw the talent her sister had and worked to have her poetry published in 1890 in a collection.

Thus, we have her work today. Emily Dickinson is regarded as one of the most influential and powerful American poets ever to exist. To be honest, when I first read her poetry in high school, I found the reoccurring themes on death, immortality and loss complex and I couldn't understand her writing. I wasn't "in love" with Emily's writing like I am today. A large part of this is probably due to my lack of respect for poetry in high school. I couldn't understand poetry, thus I didn't like the genre.

Emily Dickinson's envelope poems
(photo/Kasy Long).

Like I have explained before on this blog, it wasn't until I went to college that I fell in love with poetry. Soon after that, I fell in love with Dickinson's poetry. I began to understand it more clearly and I saw the beauty in it.

Emily Dickinson writes about life. She writes about loss, truth, nature, success, grief, faith, freedom through poetry, death and immortality. These are real emotions. While Dickinson was experiencing these thoughts and emotions while writing her poetry, her readers easily relate to the words and speakers. We understand these emotions and feelings.

She's famous for her Dickinson dash, short lines, often use of slant rhyme, and unconventional capitalization and punctuation. Maybe that's why I love her writing so much; she was different. She wrote the way she wanted and because her work wasn't published during her lifetime, she wrote for herself.

Below are my three favorite Emily Dickinson poems. Read them, study them, enjoy them, and love them. The best way to celebrate Emily Dickinson's birthday is, of course, to read her work. She may have been isolated and alone while she was living, but boy, do we know and love her now.

"Because I could not stop for Death--" 

(photo/Kasy Long)

"'Hope' is the thing with feathers--" 

(photo/Kasy Long)

"I died for beauty, but was scarce" 

(photo/Kasy Long)

Emily once wrote, "Forever is composed of nows." We have her work now and I'm very thankful her sister discovered her poems after Emily's death.

Happy birthday, Emily. I hope you found the happiness you most desperately wanted.

-KJL-