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Dickinson's hand-sewn collection of poems.

Citation: Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

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Dickinson's Headstone in Amherst, Massachusetts

Citation: Emily Dickinson Archive

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Yellow Sources are miscellaneous pictures which show more aspects of Emily Dickinson and her life, work, etc.

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Blue Sources are historical sources. These are manuscript scans from the Houghton Library Archive at Harvard University.
These were selected to show the attention to detail of Dickinson's writing and to show how much she cared for them.

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Green sources are contemporary sources. They are analyses of 3 of Dickinson's most known poems, all related by themes of morbidity or death.

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Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

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A True Poetic Genius. Death was her passion. Her Passion lead to the creation of a beautiful collection of 1,770 poems.

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Emily Dickinson's Signature
Citation: (Longsworth, 2012)

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This audio recording is of Juliet Stevenson reading one of Dickinson's most arresting poems, "My Life had Stood- A Loaded Gun

Following the reading, Dzifa Benson gives an analysis of the poem, explaining the anger within the poem. Also the grim nature of the poem as related to many others by Dickinson.

Below in yellow is Dickinson's manuscript of the poem.

Citation: (Stevenson,Benson, n.d)

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Listen to Juliet Stevenson performing Emily Dickinson's poem 'My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun'

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"I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died"- 591 Manuscript

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"I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died"- 591 Manuscript

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An example of a historical document; Dickinson's original hand-written manuscript of what is considered to be her most known poem, "I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died"
The manuscript was one of many found in a hand-sewn book of poetry. Dickinson took great care of her manuscripts. All of them are found in archives across the country. This particular manuscript is in very excellent condition. You can see the precision of her writing. This manuscript of "I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died" is in the Houghton Library Archive at Harvard University.

Citation:
Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

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This Youtube clip shows English professor Nick Courtright giving a great interpretation and analysis. He points out that while Dickinson is morbid in this poem as per her usual thematic style, she utilizes a little bit of humor.

Citation: (Courtright, 2014)

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Emily Dickinson's 465. "I heard a Fly buzz--when I died--" (Analysis & Interpretation)

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"Because I Could Not Stop For Death" -479 Manuscript

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"Because I Could Not Stop For Death" -479 Manuscript

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An example of a historical document;  Dickinson's original, hand-written manuscript of one of her most known poems "Because I could Not Stop For Death".
The manuscript was one of many found in a hand-sewn book of poetry. Dickinson took great care of her manuscripts. All of them are found in archives across the country. This particular manuscript of "Because I could Not Stop For Death" is in the Houghton Library Archive at Harvard University.

Citation:
Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

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About Dickinson's poetry: Her Life, Post-Mortem Fame, and Morbid Themes

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About Dickinson's poetry: Her Life, Post-Mortem Fame, and Morbid Themes

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This clip of Josephine Hart from The British Library Board gives a brief description of Emily Dickinson's life, poetry, post-mortem fame, as well as a bit of information regarding why her work wasn't published during her life.
During her lifetime, Dickinson wrote over 1,700 poems. Her sister found them locked in a chest in her room following her death. Sadly, her letters were burned as promised on her deathbed, but her sister fell in love with publishing and decided to share the poems with the world.

Citation: (Hart, n.d.)

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Emily Dickinson wrote short. Short does not mean sweet. When she died in 1886 aged 56 she did not have a single book of poetry to her name. She is now regarded as one the greatest poets in the American canon. Harold Bloom, the American critic, considers her as individual a thinker as Dante. How did this happen? Well, after Emily's death, her sister Lavinia opened her bureau and found neatly copied and sewn together in groups - over 900 poems - eventually 1,775 were found. She may have written 'Publication - is/ The auction of the mind ' and 'Fame is a fickle food ' - however, she had in fact tried for both. She'd sent a number of poems to the critic Thomas Wentworth Higginson who declined to publish Miss Dickinson. Twice. The poems, though he recognised their brilliance, were he said 'extreme'. They were indeed - extreme works of genius. Death obsessed? Yes. It was her elective and constant companion of the imagination, as indeed was God and nature. It seems to have sickle -sharpened every sense - ' I heard a Fly buzz-when I died -', 'My Life had stood -a loaded Gun-', 'Because I could not stop for Death' (the titles are almost always the opening line) 'Death' is, as Henry James noted 'the distinguished thing.' and Dickinson was familiar with it. She lived through the civil war - her house overlooked a graveyard - and she was often ill.

After Wentworth's second rejection she wrote him one of the most elegant exits in literary history. 'I smile when you suggest that I delay to publish - If fame belonged to me I could not escape her - my barefoot rank is better/ You think me uncontrolled? I have no tribunal...The sailor cannot see the north but knows the needle can'. Brilliant! Her nature was so intense that perhaps normal life might have overwhelmed her. This is her reaction to the visit of a circus: 'Friday I tasted life. It was a vast morsel... Still I feel the red in my mind.' She withdrew to her genius, this Nun of Amhearst as she became known. Harold Bloom believes hers is a drama of erotic loss rather than of religious obsession and Lydall Gordon's biography certainly testifies to a complex erotic nature. The poems Rearrange a ''Wife's'' affection, Heart! We will forget him!, Not with a Club, the Heart is broken and the oft -quoted My life closed twice before its close are passionate poems, drenched in longing. Perhaps in Ted Hughes's haunting phrase Emily Dickinson knew 'her unusual endowment of love was not going to be asked for'.

Josephine Hart's books, Catching Life by the Throat and Words That Burn are available to buy in the British Library shop.

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Emily Dickinson wrote short. Short does not mean sweet. When she died in 1886 aged 56 she did not have a single book of poetry to her name. She is now regarded as one the greatest poets in the American canon. Harold Bloom, the American critic, considers her as individual a thinker as Dante.