Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born in 1830. She was thought of as one of America's greatest poets though none of her poems were published during the time when she was living. When her works began to be looked at and some people tried to analyze them, people gave her work harsh criticism. Her work had many ideas that most people have to deal with everyday. Her views and her devotion to her work made her one of America's greatest poets. .
Emily Dickinson lived with her mother and father in Amherst, Massachusetts. Her father was a lawyer, who was active in their community and served as an active treasurer in Amherst College. He also was involved in the local politics. Her mother wasn't in the best of health and was considered to be a dark side to Ms. Dickinson. .
Her withdrawal from society gave her an unexpected reputation. She refused to leave her home, and her always wearing white garments gave her a reputation for eccentricity among all of her neighbors. She became even more separated from the world when her father died in 1874(Higginson 1-2).
Emily Dickinson was a poet that kept to herself and put down on paper what she was thinking about. Her writings could be considered Gothic. "Gothic writing is a late 18th and 19th century style of fiction characterized by the use of medieval settings, a murky atmosphere of horror and gloom, and macabre, mysterious, and violent incidents. Of or relating to a literary style characterized by grotesque or macabre, or fantastic incidents or by an atmosphere of irrational violence, desolation and decay. [Macabre: concerned with death, having death as a subject; dwelling unduly on the grim, grisly or .
gruesome] (Major Literary Movements and Terms, handout)". A lot of Emily Dickinson's poems could be thought of as Gothic. Her poems always being concerned with death and giving gloomy feelings to the reader. .
In Emily Dickinson's poem # 465, " I heard a fly buzz (Baym 1202)"; Dickinson uses words and imagery to express the last thoughts and sensations of the speaker while dying and the ultimate emptiness in death.
