Emily Dickinson was a renowned American poet who lived from 1830 to 1886. She was born in Amherst, Massachusetts and spent almost her entire life there. Dickinson came from a wealthy family and received a good education, but became a recluse in her later life, spending much of her time writing poetry. She corresponded with literary figures like Thomas Wentworth Higginson and published some poems anonymously in newspapers. Dickinson wrote nearly 1800 poems in secret before her death, though most were discovered and published posthumously.

1. Emily Dickinson
1830-1886

2. • Born the second of three children in Amherst,
Massachusetts
• Father was a lawyer and one of the wealthiest and
most respected citizens in the town, as well as a
conservative leader of the church
• Dickinson grew up regularly attending services at
the Congregational First Church of Christ
(Congregational churches essentially followed the
New England Puritan tradition)
• She attended Amherst Academy, where she
studied a modern curriculum of English and the
sciences, as well as Latin, botany and
mathematics

3. • Except for one year at Mount Holyoke Female
Seminary (1847-48) and a visit to Washington,
D.C., to visit her father, she spent her entire
life in Amherst
• In her family library, she had access to many
religious works as well as books by Emerson,
other transcendentalists and current
magazines
• Around 1850, she begins to write verse, which
she circulates among a circle of friends
• Her poem “Sic transit gloria mundi” was
published in the Springfield Daily Republican
in 1852

4. • She spent sociable evenings with guests such
as Samuel Bowles, editor of the Springfield
Daily Republican
• She also enjoyed dancing, buggy rides, parlor
games, and other forms of entertainment until
she began to seclude herself
• Around 1860, she stopped visiting with other
people and became a recluse
• In 1862, her poem “Safe in their alabaster
chambers” appeared in the Springfield Daily
Republican

5. • Around that time, she began her correspondence
with Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a local
intellectual, journalist, and anti-slavery activist
• She asked Higginson for advice with her poetry
– Higginson had published an article entitled “Letter to a
Young Contributor,“ in the Atlantic Monthly, in which he
advised budding young writers
– Dickinson sent him four poems, along with a letter asking
“"Are you too deeply occupied to say if my Verse is alive?"
• Higginson responded with much praise and gentle
criticism (“surgery”), but he advised her against
publishing her poetry because of its raw form and
subject matter

6. • Higginson became Dickinson’s intellectual
mentor, even though he admitted feeling out
of her league in poetical talent
• After Dickinson’s death, Higginson
collaborated with Mabel Loomis Todd in
publishing volumes of her poetry
• His edition was heavily edited for
conventional punctuation and form, as well
as content
• But, his edition helped Dickinson’s poetry
gain quick national prominence

7. • While becoming more reclusive, Dickinson
intensified correspondence with friends and
output of poetry
• She suffered from eye-trouble in 1864 and
1865
• The last 12 years she spent in self-imposed
isolation in her parents’ home
• Allegedly, Dickinson dressed entirely in white
and communicated only indirectly with visitors
and friends, from behind a folding screen or via
notes and gifts in a basket she let down from
her window into the garden

8. • She spent most of these years reading and
writing poetry
• Her most productive period coincided with the
civil war, during which she wrote about 800
poems
• She called writing poetry her business, “My
Business is Circumference” (after Emerson’s
term for poetry)
• She copied many of her poems into hand-
sewn small booklets or “fascicles” and sent
them as poetic gifts to family and friends

9. • Dickinson never married, although several
men played an important role in her life
• Lively correspondence with Benjamin
Franklin Newton on literary topics of the day
• Long correspondence with Higginson,
although he ultimately did not recognize the
worth of her poetry
• Close emotional bond to Charles Wadsworth,
whom she had met on her journey home from
Washington

10. • Strained relationship to her sister-in-law, Susan
Gilbert, who was apparently the object of her
desire in such homoerotic poems as “Her face
was in a bed of hair”
• When Dickinson died in 1886 of Bright’s
disease, her family and friends were surprised
at the amount of work she left behind
• Her sister Lavinia found 40 notebooks and
loose poems in a locked box in her bedroom
• The poems were not arranged and only 24
were titled

11. Emily
Dickinson
February-
April 1848.

12. The Dickinson Homestead in
Amherst, Massachusetts

13. The Dickinson Homestead in
Amherst, Massachusetts
(garden)

14. The Dickinson Homestead in
Amherst, Massachusetts
(bedroom)

15. The Dickinson
Homestead in
Amherst,
Massachusetts
(Dress)

16. Rhyme Scheme
Rhyme scheme is the pattern in
which the last words in lines of
poetry rhyme.
We record rhyming lines with letters.
The first two lines that rhyme would
be A; the next two would be B…and
so on. The rhyming lines do NOT
have to come right after another.
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17. Rhyme Scheme Examples
What lines in Mother Goose’s “Humpty
Dumpty” end in rhyming words?
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king’s horses, and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again!
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18. Rhyme Scheme Examples
What lines in Mother Goose’s “Humpty
Dumpty” end in rhyming words?
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king’s horses, and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again!
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19. Rhyme Scheme Examples
Once you have identified words that rhyme at
the end, label the lines in alphabetical order.
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. A
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. A
All the king’s horses, and all the king’s men B
Couldn’t put Humpty together again! B
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20. “Runaway” by Robert Frost
Below are the first few lines from “Runaway.”
What lines end in rhyming words?
Once when the snow of the year was beginning to fall,
We stopped by a mountain pasture to say, "Whose colt?"
A little Morgan had one forefoot on the wall,
The other curled at his breast. He dipped his head
And snorted to us. And then we saw him bolt.
We heard the miniature thunder where he fled,
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21. “Runaway” by Robert Frost
Below are the first few lines from “Runaway.”
What lines end in rhyming words?
Once when the snow of the year was beginning to fall,
We stopped by a mountain pasture to say, "Whose colt?"
A little Morgan had one forefoot on the wall,
The other curled at his breast. He dipped his head
And snorted to us. And then we saw him bolt.
We heard the miniature thunder where he fled,
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22. “Runaway” by Robert Frost
What is the rhyme scheme? (What letters would
you use to label these lines?)
Once when the snow of the year was beginning to fall, A
We stopped by a mountain pasture to say, "Whose colt?"
A little Morgan had one forefoot on the wall, A
The other curled at his breast. He dipped his head C
And snorted to us. And then we saw him bolt. B
We heard the miniature thunder where he fled, C
Therefore, the rhyme scheme for these lines is
ABACBC. 22

23. Rhythm
 Rhythm is the flow of the
beat in a poem.
 Gives poetry a musical
feel.
 Can be fast or slow,
depending on mood and
subject of poem.
 You can measure rhythm
in meter, by counting the
beats in each line.
 (See next two slides for
examples.)
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24. Rhythm Example
The Pickety Fence by David McCord
The pickety fence
The pickety fence
Give it a lick it's
The pickety fence
Give it a lick it's
A clickety fence
Give it a lick it's a lickety fence
Give it a lick
Give it a lick
Give it a lick
With a rickety stick The rhythm in this poem is fast – to
match the speed of the stick striking
pickety
the fence.
pickety
pickety
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pick.

25. Rhythm Example
Where Are You Now?
When the night begins to fall
And the sky begins to glow
You look up and see the tall
City of lights begin to grow –
In rows and little golden squares
The lights come out. First here, then there
Behind the windowpanes as though The rhythm in this poem is
A million billion bees had built slow – to match the night
Their golden hives and honeycombs gently falling and the lights
slowly coming on.
Above you in the air.
By Mary Britton Miller
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26. ALLITERATION
• Consonant sounds repeated at the
beginnings of words
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled
peppers, how many pickled peppers did
Peter Piper pick?
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27. CONSONANCE
• Similar to alliteration EXCEPT . . .
• The repeated consonant sounds can be
anywhere in the words
“silken, sad, uncertain, rustling . . “
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28. Consonance
• Close repetition of the same
consonant sounds, preceded by
different vowel sounds
• Note: At the end of lines of poetry,
this produces half-rhyme.
• Example:
Flash and flesh.
Breed and bread.
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29. Consonance
• Find the Consonance in Our Homemade
Limerick.
“Sometimes, I wish I could wash,
My reds with my whites, Josh.
In a flash they’d be done,
If I washed them as one,
But a pink they would be make as they
swish swash, swish swash.
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30. Consonance
“Sometimes, I wish I could wash,
My reds with my whites, Josh.
In a flash they’d be done,
If I washed them as one,
But a pink they would be make as they
swish swash, swish swash.
Red – Consonance
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31. ASSONANCE
• Repeated VOWEL sounds in a
line or lines of poetry.
(Often creates near rhyme.)
Lake Fate Base
Fade
(All share the long “a” sound.)
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32. ASSONANCE cont.
Examples of ASSONANCE:
“Slow the low gradual moan
came in the snowing.”
- John Masefield
“Shall ever medicine thee to that
sweet sleep.”
- William Shakespeare
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33. Why are these
important?
• Alliteration, Assonance, and
Consonance are all useful in literature
because they create a general flow.
• They all add a sense of lyricism to a
poem, or a song.
• Also, used in tongue twisters.
Example: Sally sells sea shells by
the sea shore.
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