Author study on Emily Dickinson - Essay Example

On September 7, 1835, Emily begins education at West Center District School but later on, had to stop because of illness. When her parents decided to enroll her at Amherst Academy, Emily was too shy to enter the academy alone. Emily loved school but felt that she was old enough to attend Amherst Academy. She insisted on attending the academy with her sister Vinnie even Vinnie was still young. On September 7, 1840, Emily and Lavinia begin Amherst Academy (Kirk, xv). Emily never outgrew her shyness towards strangers but she was fun to be with and witty especially to those she had known well.

People who know her accept her odd behaviors such as hiding in the woods so that no one can see her watching the first trip of the train on the railroad her father built. Emily completes her last year in Amherst Academy in August 10, 1847 and begins school at Mount Holyoke in September 30, 1847 where she began to write poetry (Kirk, xvi). Her Life as a Poet Emily has been writing poetry even when she was in her teens. Nobody in her family was interested in writing except for her auntie Lavinia.

Her aunt is fond of books, writing verse, and has independent turn of minds, unlike her mother. Perhaps, her aunt inspired her to write poetry (Sewall, 325). In 1847, Dickinson enrolled at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary and stayed only for a year. Dickinson became outrageously outstanding among her fellow classmates because of her refusal in every school’s Christians evangelical activities. Dickinson wrote in a poem, “Some keep the Sabbath going to church, I keep it staying home.” Emily Dickinson considers herself as a believer, but never joined the church.

In a student assembly at Mount Holyoke, headmistress Mary Lyon asked all the students who wants to be Christian to stand up; only Emily did not. Her classmate, Clara Newman Turner, heard Emily saying that it was strange that she didn’t rise but it would be stranger if she lied (Sewall, 360). During her stay in Mount Holyoke, she felt very homesick and frequently write letters to her brother, Austin. On March 25, 1848, William Austin went to Mount Holyoke to bring back Emily to Amherst. Emily moved to Homestead and stayed there for the rest of her life (Bolin, 5).

Emily became friends with Benjamin Newton. He is a law student studying with his father and admired Emily’s poetry. Unexpectedly, Ben died and Emily couldn’t believe it. This is the time when Emily started to write poems about death. Emily and her sister Vinnie never get married. They just stayed in their house, beside the house of their brother Austin and his wife, Sue. Emily hated household chores; that is why she is the cook and Vinnie took charge of housekeeping. With outgrowing shyness Emily had, she merely went out and spent time in town.

She only socialized with her family and saw only visitors she chose to see. Later on, the town has made up odd stories about her. Since age forty, Emily only think of writing poetry. While all of the people are resting in the middle of the night, Emily was writing poems. Her poems were unusual, beyond reality, and reached possibilities. Poetry at that time was flowery. People find it unusual to like her poems because it is light and witty. She always wrote in lambic – poems written in rhythm or meter.

Most of her poems have four stanzas and each stanza have four lines. Lines one