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Johnathan Cornella

Mr. Damaso

English II, Period 7

March 25, 2009

1rst Source Check

Revised Literary Thread: Emily Dickinson’s poetry exemplifies her strong desire to embrace

death and fear in the world around her, which is portrayed through graphic imagery, as well as

metaphors.

Biography:
Crumbley, Paul. “Emily Dickinson’s Life.”American National Biography. New York: Oxford

University Press, 1999. Modern American Poetry. 25 Mar. 2000

<http://www.english.illinois.edu/>

• Paul Crumbley has a bachelor’s in Englsih and Philosophy from Wittman’s University,

and is an expert in the area of Emily Dickinson. (Crumbly, Par 1).

• Emily Dickinson’s Poems were discovered by her sister after her death and released to

the public in 1890. (Crumbly, Par 1).

• Emily Dickinson has a style of immense depth and stylish complexity. She performs like

Jazz artist who uses rhythm and meter to master poetry. (Crumbly, Par 1)

• The fact that Emily Dickinson was a woman prevented her from publishing her poetry.

(Crumbly, Par 2).

• Dickinson Graduated from Amherst Academy. This Academy was founded by her family.

This is where she spent her childhood. (Crumbly, Par 2).

• Dickinson was said to be an innovative thinker with an original mind. (Crumbly, Par 3)
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• Dickinson refused to participate in Christian religion. As she grew older she stopped

attending church. Thought that she had no salvation in heaven. This dramatically

affected the theme of death in her poetry. (Crumbly, Par 4).

• Dickinson withdrew from the public although she maintained connections with various

important and famous artists. She wrote thousands of poems that were discovered in a

wood cabnet. (Crumbly, Par 5).

• Dickinson’s use of punctuation in her poems has a major affect on the way that they are

understood. (Crumbly, Par 7).

• Poetry scholars believe that a high point in the amount of poetry that she was producing

may have been caused by a love affair. (Crumbly, Par 9).

• Emily Dickinson wrote a series of letters that described her pride in her ability to write,

her preference for solidarity and freedom from society, and her inability to conceive the

after life and her relation with God. (Crumbly, Par 14).

• Dickinson’s Poems express her extremes of passion that were evident during her life.

This included her love, despair, dread, and elation. (Crumbly, Par 19).

Source 2: Emily Dickinson

Ruth, Miller. “Emily Elizibeth Dickinson”. The American Renisance in England (2001):

135-149. Ed. Joel Myerson Detroit: Thomson Gale Gale Virtual Reference

Library. Gale. Brophy College Preparatory, Phoenix, AZ. Web. 16 Mar. 2009.

http://find.galegroup.com

• Emily Dickinson had to wait until a new type of poetic form called imagery was

introduced. (Miller, Par. 1)

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• Emily Dickinson suffered a tramatic experience between 1858-1862. This caused her

to retreat into her household, and remain isolated from society. (Miller, Par 3).

• Emily Dickinson’s brother and father became dedicated lawyers. Her mother had a

stroke and lingered on into the later days of her life. (Miller, Para 4).

• Dickinson’s position in the College allowed her to be exposed to literary styles at

Amherst College. Her sister Lavina was the primery influence on her life. (Miller, Par

6).

• “We begin to find traces of alienation; at first a merely wistful sense of

deprivation, carrying hints of a growing discomfort about the religious

conversions that were going on about her, gradually darkening into a

concern with death and longings for a fulfillment that was denied to her.”.

This information portrays Dickinson’s poetry about mortality. (Miller, Par

9).

• Emily Dickinson refused medical care near the end of her life, and made

her best effort to reach out and embrace death, as evidenced in a majority

of her poetry. (Miller, Par 11).

• Emily worked in a newspaper composing poetry for the Springfield

Republican. A variety of her articles were published, which helped her gain

fame and reputation with other poets. (Miller, Par 4).

• As a child, Emily Dickinson’s father demanded that she should accept her

religion without understanding it. This led to unwillingness to accept

religion and her later argument with mortality. (Miller, Para 7).

• On May 15,1886 Dickinson died of Bright’s disease. She was buried in Amherst.

(Miller, Para 14).

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Article 3: Calvinism in Emily Dickinson

Reill, Peter Hands. “Calvinism.”. Encyclopedia of the Enlightenmet RevisedEdition

(2004). New York: Facts on File, Inc.,2004. Modern World History Online.

Brophy College Prepatory. Web. 16th March 2009.

<http://www.fofweb.com>.

• Calvinism had a profound impact on Dickinson, and influenced her poetry

concerning life and death. Calvinism was the primary religion, and Dickinson

rebelled against it. Her father was a Calvinist.

• Jean Calvin founded Calvinism. Salvation came from faith in God, rather then

the accumulationof good works. (Reill Par. 5).

• Calvinists emphasized a doctrine of hardworking materialism and logic. (Reill

Par. 6).

• Salvation was attainable only through faith in God. This came to affect

Dickinson greatly, and her poems contemplated her own mortality. Since

Dickinson did not believe in Calvinism, she did not know what her future

would hold. (Reill Par. 6).

• Calvinism requires a public expression of faith. This was a key problem for

Dickinson, and she left her Calvinistic beliefs because of it. (Reill Par. 8).

• Calvinismwas a life of hard work in dedication to God. It required discipline,

reverence, and hard work in daily life. Dickinson’s life did not reflect this. She

remained within her house and did not engage in the community. (Reill Par.

12).

• Dickinson’s struggle for her personal religious salvation was evident in her

poetry.
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Article 4: Historical Background of the American Civil War

Phillips, Charles. "Historical background of the American Civil War." Encyclopedia of

Wars, vol. 3. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2005. Modern World History Online.

Facts On File, Inc. Brophy College Prepatory. Web. 16 March. 2009.

• Although Dickinson was never involved directly in the civil war, a variety of

her friends, including Thomas Higginson were injured. However, her poetry

does not portray this information.

• The North combated the south during the Civil War about the issue of Slavery.

The Southerners wished to abolish and disband the union. (Phillips, Par 5).

• The Union had about 359,528 causalities, while the confederacy 275,175.

• Ulysses S. Grant won the war for the Union. After the election he was elected

president of the United States. (Phillips, Par 7).

• Dickinson would have been exposed to world’s treatment of Blacks as Slaves,

and the severityof the War. The feelings of defeat and death are likely to have

influenced her poems. (Phillps, Par 11).

• The Underground Railroad was present during the time of Emily Dickinson.

Slaves were smuggled from the South to the North, in order to attain

freedom. (Phillips, par. 13).

• Emily Dickinson was alive during the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

However, Dickens never wrote a poem directly on the assassination of

Abraham Lincoln. Dickinson’s poetry almost never mentions the civil war

although it dramatically impacted her life. (Phillips, Par. 23).

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• Dickinson was a citizen of Massachusetts and supported the Union

throughout the war. However, she did not contribute to the war effort, and

remained in her home publishing poetry.

• The war began on April 12, 1861 when the confederacy attacked Fort Sumter.

(Phillips,Par. 44).

• General Robert Lee leads the side of the confederacy throughout the battle.

He was a brilliant general and was responsible for a large portion of the

victories of the confederacy. (Philips, Par 6).