Who is Emily Dickinson

It was a long road for Emily's poems to be published. She kept an active correspondence with Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a writer for Atlantic Monthly, whom she hoped would appreciate and advance her work. She looked upon him as a mentor. Unfortunately, during her lifetime he did not give her much encouragement or help with publication. At the time there were not many female poets and Emily did not write in a conventional style.

Emily's poetry explored her private thoughts and feelings, although she was also cryptic. Family and friends were aware that she wrote poems, but had no idea how many she had written. They were shocked when they found the stash of over 1775 poems tucked away on sheets of paper in the desk in her bedroom. Only a few poems were published during her lifetime. Livinia collected the poems and had them published with help from Mabel Loomis Todd, a family friend and a published writer, and Higginson.

Death
Emily lived near the cemetery and was fascinated by death. She wrote many poems describing death in peaceful and comfortable terms. This was possibly her way of dealing with the illness and deaths that touched her deeply and personally. Emily's mother was bedridden after a stroke partially paralyzed her in 1875. Emily and Livinia cared for their mother until her death seven years later. Many people close to Emily died during her lifetime, which caused her great pain. First her father then her mother, a close friend, her favorite nephew, and finally the man she had a known romance with and almost married. She herself suffered poor health for the last three years of her life.

Nature
She was a keen observer of the world around her and spent many hours gardening in her conservatory. She also watched birds and animals through her window. Many of her poems describe flowers, animals and the natural world with vivid imagery.

Love
Although never married, she wrote love poems. Several of them depict unrequited or disappointed love; however, nothing in these poems reveals the identity of the person. Of course there are theories, including Thomas Higginson and even her sister-in-law Susan, but very thin evidence for any of them. In her later life, Emily did have a romance with widower, Judge Otis Phillips Lords. He was a friend of her father's and had been a frequent visitor to the family. Surviving letters show that she considered marrying him.

Photo courtesy of raflowers at stock.xchng

Emily enjoyed baking and often baked gingerbread cookies and lowered them down in a basket tied on a rope from her bedroom window down to neighborhood children. This is the same recipe she used.

Recipe

4 cups flour
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon ginger
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup molasses

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease cookie sheet. Combine the ingredients in a mixing bowl. Shape heaping tablespoons of dough into flattened ovals about 3 inches long. Bake for 20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

There are only speculations and none of them can be proven. Here is a list of the common ones.

Broken heart
Depression
Agoraphobia
Traumatic stress after a possible rape