Emily Dickenson

1. Emily Dickenson Kayla Collis 2nd period

2. The years between December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886 • An American poet. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a successful family. • She loved to read the bible but was also familiar with other literature especially that of Lydia Maria Child's Letters from New York. • Emily never married and had children. This is probably the reason for her writing so many poems.

3. My river runs to thee My river runs to thee: Blue sea, wilt welcome me? My river waits reply. Oh sea, look graciously! I ’ll fetch thee brooks From spotted nooks,— Say, sea, Take me!

4. About the poem • Rhyme: AA BB CC AA • Meter: Spondee (Spondaic) • Theme: Love

5. What the Critics Say… Roger Lundinargues that Dickinson's poetry was in large measure about belief, its uncertainties and comforts. She wrote and crafted lines about weighty topics such as nature, consciousness, suffering,, and, of course, God. In Lundin's rendering, he discovered that Emily’s God was not so much nonexistent as mute, : "I know that He exists / Somewhere—in Silence— / He has hid his rare life / From our

6. Beauty is not caused. It is. The Dickenson children with Emily on the left. Success is counted sweetest by those who never succeed. They say that God is everywhere, and yet we always think of Him as somewhat of a recluse. Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul And sings the tune without the words And never stops at all,