Emily Dickinson By: Ashton McWhirter

Early Life  Emily Dickinson was born December 10, 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts. She was born into a very strong, successful family with an older brother and younger sister. Her father was a very well educated man and wanted the same for his children. Emily was often described by both family and teachers as “well behaved” and “very bright” all throughout her childhood. Emily

Early Influence  A close family friend, Benjamin Franklin Newton, is believed to be the one that introduced Emily to poets such as William Wordsworth and Ralph Waldo Emerson and sparked her interest in writing poetry.

Adult life  In the mid 1850’s, Emily’s mother became very ill and was bedridden until her death in Emily and her sister realized as their mother worsened that someone would need to always stay with her and take care of her. Emily took the responsibility, and said she found life there in the house with her books. During this time, Emily wrote tons of poems, but never published more than 12 of them during her lifetime because no one would have them published the way she wrote them because she didn’t do write the “normal” way, with strict meter and rhyme scheme.

The Publishing of the Poems  On May 15, 1886, after struggling with declining health, Emily passed away at age 55. After her death, Emily’s younger sister Lavinia discovered almost 1800 poems while going through her bedroom. The first volume of her poems was published in 1890, 4 years after she died. Unfortunately, they were published after much editing, which was not the way Emily had wanted it, and was the reason she had never allowed them to be published while she was alive. Finally in 1955, Thomas H. Johnson published Complete Poems, a book containing Emily’s poems the exact way she wrote them.

Going to Heaven!

Explicating the poem  This poem has no rhyme or meter, meaning it is free verse.  This poem does not contain figurative language (that I found.)  I think the theme of this poem is that though she is excited about going to heaven one day and knows that it’ll will be amazing when she does, she’s not in any rush to get there.

Singing the poem! 

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