A GREAT AMERICAN POET

February 07, 2011

Emily Dickinson was born in 1830, and died in 1886.  Emily was one of the most prolific poets in our country.  She wrote nearly 1800 poems.  Emily lived her life at the family home in Amherst, Mass.  She rarely left her father's house and grounds during her whole life, and rarely saw other people besides members of her immediate family.  Her father gave her permission to write late at night in her upstairs bedroom when the rest of the household was quiet and asleep.  Her poems were about love, death, art, grief, and gardens.  Did you know that very few of her poems were published during her lifetime, and her work was discovered in her bedroom after her death?  For more information on Emily, check out MCPL's Literature and Language Arts database.

Rose G.
Buckner Branch