4. Walking through cemetery and looking at the tombstones.
5. Writing a will and making other plans for my death.
6. Attending the funeral of someone whom I know well.
7. Imagining my funeral and wondering what will happen to me when I’m
dead. 8.
Getting sick and not being able to get well. 9.
Discovering that I have a potentially fatal illness. 10.
Being admitted to the critical ward of a hospital. 11.
Being told that I have only a short time to live. 12.
Hearing that I am expected to die in the next day or so. The result of this systematic desensitization might be various. It
depends on the intens ity of fears of death and a personal history of the patient.
B. The Biography of Emily Dickinson
Since this study deals with Emily Dickinson’s perception toward death, it would be better if we knew her life better. The reason is because there is a close
rela tionship between the life of the poet with the poems. The biography is taken from American Poetry and Prose, The Norton Anthology of American Literature,
and “Emily Dickinson 1830-1886 written by Paul Crumbley.
1 . Emily Dickinson’s Life
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson is one of America’s famous poets. She was born on December 10, 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts. She is the second
daughter of Edward and Emily Norcross Dickinson. In 1840 she attended Amherst Academy which was founded by her grandfather. By the time she was a teenager,
Dickinson realized that her father had been a great influence to her life, while her mother was a simple person who had dedicated her life to her family.
In 1847 – 1848 Emily Dickinson attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary at South Hadley, Massachusetts. She left the seminary after only one
year. During that period she had never been healthy enough. Actually, the real reason of her departure from the seminary was that the students were asked to join
the church, and Dickinson did not want to take part in it. Emily Dickinson began writing in 1850s and was inspired by the works of
Ralph Waldo Emerson and Emily one of the Bronte sisters. Her formal education was limited but somehow her writings were well versed. There were some short
visits to Boston and Philadelphia. Visiting her father, Dickinson and her sister stopped off at Philadelphia where she met reverend Charles Wadsworth.
Wadsworth was married and also a father. This relationship is the focus of her love those years. She also made connection with Samuel Bowels, the editor of
Springfield Republican who published her 1,852 poems.
In 1858 she began gathering her poems in packets which she called “fascicles” which was bound in string. Fifty poems were written in 1858, 100 in
the follow ing year, sixty five in 1860, eighty in 1861 and 366 in 1862. In 1860 she found out that Bowles derided her poetry as unhealthy and the product of a lonely
woman. Since then she began to withdraw herself from the world. However, she still corresponded with a great number of friends and relatives. Also in the same
time Wadsworth informed her that he would move to the West. However, it was assumed that Dickinson suffered an emotional trauma at this time. Her poetry
reflects this frustration and rejection of love and the acceptance of new love in
Christ. Dickinson’s removal from the world gave her enough time in revising and refining poems which she knew would never read by others. She also began to
dress in white. To neighbours in her hometown, Dickinson was an eccentric figure, a spinster who after her early thirties never ventured beyond her family
home or garden. Emily Dickinson was encouraged by an article about an advice to
prospective poet written by Higginson. Higginson’s rejection of her poetry drove Dickinson further into her private world. In 1860s she made a new “touch” to her
poems. Inspired by English hymn writer Isaac Watts, she used quatrain with three iambic feet. Language and imaginary was heavily inspired by the King James
version of bible and Shakespeare. However, she created her own poetic language to express her own unique message. She began employing slant or off-rhymes, as
well as slant rhythms. The year of civil war coincided with Emily Dickinson’s greatest output,
800 poems. The war did not inspire her. The death of Emily Dickinson’s father in 1874 was a shock to her, and from that time on she never left her house in
Amherst. The following year, her mother had a stroke and paralyzed. Therefore, Dickinson took care of her mother. She had her routine activities: household tasks
during the day and then her writing and collection of fascicles at night. However, this routine was broken by her relationship with Judge Otis Lord, a friend of her
father. This relationship was the closest thing she had to satisfying love. Emily Dickinson’s final years were filled with the death of loved ones: her
mother died in 1882, a favorite nephew in 1883, and Lord in 1884. Dickinson suffered an emotional collapse from which she never recovered. In 1886, she was
diagnosed and suffered a bright disease kidney disorder, and die in May 15, 1886.
There were only ten poems which were published during her life times. After her death, her sister Lavinia discovered the fascicles containing some 1,800
poems and she wanted to publish it. Lavinia are astonished to discover that the poems were written in odd and even paper-the back of envelopes and discarded
letters, bits of wrapping paper, and the edges of newspaper. With the help of Mable Loomis Todd, she asked Higginson to publish Emily Dickinson’s poems.
Poems had to be printed twice within two months of publication in the next eight year went 16 editions. The poems were so popular that Higginson and Todd
had to prepare for the second volume. The poems were published by subject matter and theme: love, death, nature, and friendship. The second volume, Poems,
Second Series , also popular, and went through five editions by 1893.
C. Criticism
