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Emily Dickinson was born in 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts. She lived there all her life. It is said that she had an ordinary youth but that something happened to her in her early thirties which led to her becoming a recluse. She is said to have rarely spoken to people, keeping herself indoors and away from people. When she died, nearly two thousand poems and fragments were found by her family. Hardly any of them were published in her lifetime and it was many years before their true value was appreciated.

Here is some brief information about the poetry of Emily Dickinson that is on your course.

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More detailed information can be found further down the page.

I  Felt A Funeral, In My Brain.

This poem imagines someone in a coffin at his or her own funeral.
The speaker hears the people enter the church, hears the service and feels them lift the coffin.
As the poem ends, it stops making sense. This is because the speaker is drifting away, and is losing the ability to perceive what is happening and losing the ability to express it.

I heard a Fly buzz – when I died.
This poem is again about death, and is written in the first person too. It explains what happens to the speaker just as he/she dies.
We hear all about the atmosphere in the room, about how God is about to come to take the soul away, and how all the preparations have been made.
But then, just as it is all about to happen, a fly enters the room and distracts the speaker completely.

“Hope” is the thing with feathers.
In this simple poem, Emily compares the idea of “hope” to a bird that always stays about and always sings. It never flies off leaving her alone and scared.

I could bring you Jewels – had I a mind to.
This poem is also rather simple. It is an example of one of her “Letter Poems”. These were poems she wrote to send to people she knew.

A Bird came down the walk.

 A rather simple nature poem, a straightforward celebration of nature.

I taste a liquor never brewed.

This poem is also a celebration of nature. Dickinson uses the metaphor of alcohol t odescribe her joy at the experience of nature.

There’s A Certain Slant Of Light.

Dickinson here writes about the light of a winter afternoon and how dark and depressing it can be.

 After Great Pain, A Formal Feeling Comes.

Dickinson wrote here about how people feel after experiencing something very painful.

 The Soul Has Bandaged Moments.

The soul is written about in this poem. Dickinson writes about how the soul is sometimes scared and troubled by the world and sometimes very happy.

 A Narrow Fellow In The Grass.

This poem is about Dickinson seeing a creature in the grass. She also talks about how it feels to see this creature.