Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) was an American poet born in Amherst, Massachusetts, widely regarded as one of the most important and original poets in American literary history. She lived a famously reclusive life, rarely leaving her family home, and wrote nearly 1,800 poems, of which fewer than a dozen were published during her lifetime.

Her poetry is marked by unconventional punctuation, especially the frequent use of dashes, irregular capitalization, and compressed, riddling syntax. Working largely within hymn-like meters, she explored themes of death, immortality, nature, faith and the inner life with startling psychological depth and economy of language. The early deaths of close friends and relatives profoundly shaped her preoccupation with mortality.

Poems such as «Because I Could Not Stop for Death», «Hope is the thing with feathers» and «I'm Nobody! Who Are You?» remain among the most anthologized works in English poetry. Published posthumously largely through the efforts of others, her work has had a lasting influence on modern poetry, standing in stark contrast to the expansive, public voice of her contemporary Walt Whitman.