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Emily Dickinson, 1830-1886: The 'Belle of Amherst' Became one of America's Greatest Poets
Little is known about her life. But her poetry remains popular today.
ANNOUNCER:
People in America – a program in Special English about famous Americans of the past. Now, Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe tell the story of nineteenth century poet Emily Dickinson.
(MUSIC)
Emily Dickinson
VOICE ONE:
Because I could not stop for Death —
He kindly stopped for me –
The carriage held but just ourselves
And immortality.
VOICE TWO:
The words are by American poet Emily Dickinson, who died in eighteen eighty-six. During her life, she published only about ten poems. Four years after her death, a few more poems were published. But her complete work did not appear until nineteen fifty-five.
VOICE ONE:
I'm Nobody! Who are you?
Are you -- Nobody – Too?
VOICE TWO:
Emily Dickinson has become part of our language without really being part of our history. Some see her as the last poet of an early American tradition. Others see her as the first modern American poet. Each reader seems to find a different Emily Dickinson. She remains as mysterious as she was when she was alive.
VOICE ONE:
Tell all the Truth but tell it slant --
VOICE TWO:
The truth about Emily Dickinson has been difficult to discover. Few people of her time knew who she was or what she was doing. The main facts about her life are these.
She was born December tenth, eighteen thirty, in the small Massachusetts town of Amherst. She lived and died in the same house where she was born. Emily received a good education. She studied philosophy, the Latin language, and the science of plants and rocks.
Emily's parents were important people in Amherst. Many famous visitors came to their house, and Emily met them. Her father was a well-known lawyer who was elected to Congress for one term.
Mister Dickinson believed that women should be educated. But he also believed that women should not use their education to work outside the home. He felt their one and only task was to care for their husband and children. Emily once said: “He buys me many books, but begs me not to read them, because he fears they upset the mind.”
Emily wrote more than one thousand seven hundred poems. There are three books of her letters. And there are many books about her life.
Some of her best work was written in the four years between eighteen fifty-eight and eighteen sixty-two.
VOICE ONE:
I live with Him -- I see his face --
I go no more away
For Visitor -- or Sundown--
Death's single privacy
Dreams -- are well -- but Waking's better,
If One wake at Morn --
If One wake at Midnight – better --
Dreaming -- of the Dawn --
This is my letter to the World
That never wrote to me--
The simple News that Nature told--
With tender Majesty
VOICE TWO:
In those years, Emily seems to have found her "voice" as a poet. She settled into forms she used for the rest of her life. The forms are similar to those of religious music used during her lifetime. But her choice of words was unusual. She wrote that her dictionary was her best friend.
Other influences were the English poet, William Shakespeare; the Christian holy book, the Bible; and the forces of nature.
VOICE ONE:
I dreaded that first robin so,
But he is mastered now,
And I'm accustomed to him grown--
He hurts a little though
I dared not meet the daffodils,
For fear their yellow gown
Would pierce me with a fashion
So foreign to my own.
I could not bear the bees should come,
I wished they'd stay away
In those dim countries where they go:
What word had they for me?
VOICE TWO:
Throughout her life, Emily asked men for advice. And then she did not follow what they told her. As a child, there was her father. Later there was her father's law partner, and a churchman she met in the city of Philadelphia. Another man who helped her was the writer Thomas Wentworth Higginson.
Higginson had written a magazine story giving advice to young, unpublished writers. Emily wrote to him when she was in her early thirties. She included a few poems.
Higginson wrote back and later visited Emily in Amherst. In the next few years, Emily sent him many more poems. But he did not have them published, and admitted that he did not understand Emily's poetry.
