Regarded as one of America’s greatest poets, is also well known for her unusual life of self imposed social seclusion. Living a life of simplicity and seclusion, she yet wrote poetry of great power; questioning the nature of immortality and death, with at times an almost romantic quality. Within short, compact phrases she expressed far-reaching ideas; amidst paradox and uncertainty her poetry has an undeniable capacity to move and provoke.
Ten or so poems were published in her lifetime, mostly without her consent. She often included poems with letters but, after her death, the poet’s sister Vinnie, was surprised to find almost eighteen hundred individual poems in Dickinson’s bedroom. Emily Dickinson's first book of poems was published in 1890. Continue reading from Biography Online
To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,
One clover, and a bee.
And revery.
The revery alone will do,
If bees are few.
Emily Dickinson Archives Online (Emily Dickinson Archives)
Beyond the Cheated Eye (Nineteenth-Century Literature)
Tips for Reading Dickinson's Poetry (Emily Dickinson Museum)
