American Literature

Expansion and Reform (1801-1861)

Women

This collection uses primary sources to explore the poetry of Emily Dickinson.

Teaching Guide: Exploring the Poetry of Emily Dickinson

An undated image of the Dickinson children: Emily, Austin, and Lavinia.

The manuscript of Dickinson’s poem beginning “‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers,” ca. 1861.

The manuscript of Dickinson’s poem beginning “I felt a funeral in my brain,” ca. 1861. 

The manuscript of Dickinson’s poem beginning “No prisoner be,” ca. 1863, which appears at the bottom of the page.

The manuscript of Dickinson’s poem beginning “A narrow fellow in the grass,” ca. 1865. 

A map of Amherst, Massachusetts, attributed to Charles B. Adams and Alonzo Gray, published by Pendleton’s Lithography in 1833. 

An excerpt from an undated letter from Emily Dickinson to her younger sister, Lavinia. 

An undated letter from Emily Dickinson to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, ca. 1880.

An excerpt from *Introduction to Emily Dickinson* by Henry W. Wells, 1959. 

A page from an 1857 *Godey’s Lady’s Book*, a popular and influential magazine for women during Emily Dickinson’s lifetime.

Resources

1. [Resources](http://www.edickinson.org/resources), Emily Dickinson Archive. 
2. [Emily Dickinson](http://www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/about_emily_dickinson), The Emily Dickinson Museum. 
3. “[Her Own Society: A new reading of Emily Dickinson](http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/08/04/her-own-society),” *New Yorker*. 

Overview

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) was an American writer who lived during the Civil War and the first wave of feminism, during which women fought for suffrage and other rights. Dickinson lived a famously isolated existence but read widely and used letters to stay connected to the world. Dickinson’s inventive poems experiment with punctuation, syntax, metaphors, and diction to explore themes including nature, freedom, death, power, and faith. Though she published little during her lifetime, Dickinson wrote almost 1,800 poems and hundreds of letters. Today, Dickinson is one of the most read and studied American writers. Dickinson’s innovations in poetic form and examination of unexpected topics inspired writers in future generations, both in the US and around the world; her influence can be seen, for example, in modernist poetry of the twentieth century.

English

The Poetry of Emily Dickinson

poetry-emily-dickinson_04_e9ef971abdadc42aab4943728e4c11c8.jpg

Courtesy of Emily Dickinson Archive via Harvard Library.

Dickinson, Emily, “No prisoner be,” Digital Public Library of America, http://dp.la/item/e9ef971abdadc42aab4943728e4c11c8.

No Prisoner be - <br>
Where Liberty - <br>
Himself - abide with Thee - <br>

The manuscript of Dickinson’s poem beginning “No prisoner be,” ca. 1863, which appears at the bottom of the page.

Cite this item

Tips for Students

Item 4 of 10 in the Primary Source Set The Poetry of Emily Dickinson