Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson was an American poet (1830–1886) known for her compressed, unconventional verse marked by slant rhyme, dashes, and unusual capitalization.
She lived reclusively in Amherst, Massachusetts, publishing fewer than a dozen poems in her lifetime; nearly 1,800 were discovered after her death.
Her name evokes intense introspection and literary innovation: very Emily Dickinson of you to spend the weekend alone writing in your journal.
Metered poetic passage
- stanzaPoem's line grouping
- slant rhymeApproximate sound correspondence
- quatrainFour-line poetic unit
- lyricSong's text
ballad · common meter · enjambment · capitalization · dashes · brevity · compression · imagery
Person choosing total seclusion
- solitudeState of being alone
- withdrawalAct of taking away
- privacyFreedom from observation
- homesteadFamily farm and dwelling
white dress · introversion · isolation · letters · correspondence · bedroom · unseen · hidden
Cultivated plant area
- beeStinging nectar gatherer
- birdFeathered flying vertebrate
- butterflyWinged insect from caterpillar
- cloverThree-leafed legume plant
daisy · bobolink · robin · snake · frost · sunset · seasons · bloom
Something hard to fathom
- secretsConcealed information
- unknownNot yet discovered
- crypticObscure in meaning
- veiledConcealed or obscured
elusive · ambiguity · private · hidden · riddle · obscure · unknowable · inscrutable
Exemption from death
- eternityBoundless temporal existence
- graveSerious and worrying
- funeralService honoring the dead
- mourningPeriod following loss
coffin · burial · cemetery · afterlife · heaven · soul · dying · deathbed
Innermost animating essence
- consciousnessState of sentient awareness
- psycheTotal mental life
- mindSeat of consciousness
- perceptionMental interpretation of stimuli
feeling · ecstasy · despair · madness · pain · loneliness · hope · doubt
Novel creative quality
- unconventionalDeparting from standard practice
- experimentalTesting new methods
- avant-gardeInnovative cultural pioneers
- idiosyncraticDistinctively individual in nature
unorthodox · modernist · visionary · revolutionary · singular · distinctive · groundbreaking · influence
verse
Metered poetic passage
- stanzaPoem's line grouping
- slant rhymeApproximate sound correspondence
- quatrainFour-line poetic unit
lyric · ballad · common meter · enjambment · capitalization · dashes · brevity · compression · imagery · metaphor
hermit
Person choosing total seclusion
- solitudeState of being alone
- withdrawalAct of taking away
- privacyFreedom from observation
homestead · white dress · introversion · isolation · letters · correspondence · bedroom · unseen · hidden · anonymity
garden
Cultivated plant area
clover · daisy · bobolink · robin · snake · frost · sunset · seasons · bloom · petal
enigma
Something hard to fathom
veiled · elusive · ambiguity · private · hidden · riddle · obscure · unknowable · inscrutable · coded
immortality
Exemption from death
mourning · coffin · burial · cemetery · afterlife · heaven · soul · dying · deathbed · fly
soul
Innermost animating essence
- consciousnessState of sentient awareness
- psycheTotal mental life
- mindSeat of consciousness
perception · feeling · ecstasy · despair · madness · pain · loneliness · hope · doubt · faith
originality
Novel creative quality
- unconventionalDeparting from standard practice
- experimentalTesting new methods
- avant-gardeInnovative cultural pioneers
idiosyncratic · unorthodox · modernist · visionary · revolutionary · singular · distinctive · groundbreaking · influence · legacy
- Famous AuthorsShakespeare, Dickens, Austen, Hemingway, Twain
- poetspoet, Homer, Dante, Milton, Robert Frost
- Women WritersJane Austen, Virginia Woolf, George Eliot, Anne Bronte, Toni Morrison
- American LiteratureThe Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Scarlet Letter, Moby-Dick, Moby Dick
- American AuthorsMark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe, Twain, Poe, Hawthorne
- American Women WritersHarriet Beecher Stowe, Louisa May Alcott, Edith Wharton, Emma Lazarus
Emily DickinsonWalt Whitman
Allen Ginsberg · Carl Sandburg · Maya Angelou · Pablo Neruda · Langston Hughes
Emily DickinsonWalt Whitman
Lord Byron · Oscar Wilde · Ernest Hemingway · Mark Twain · Norman Mailer
Emily DickinsonWalt Whitman
Homer · Virgil · John Milton · Dante Alighieri · epic poet