Her work can be written much more than a biography. The fact is that her fate was not at all saturated with bright events, stormy novels, or at least some ups and downs. And mostly because that was her life choice. A female poetess in American society in the mid-19th century could have been very popular, but Emily Dickinson preferred fame, fame and the bustle of social life to quiet retreat in her native city. Why? Partly the answer to this question is given by her poetry. So, what do we know about Emily Dickinson, whose poems are considered classics of American literature?
Origin
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born in 1830 in the small provincial town of Amherst, Massachusetts, USA. There, her path ended in 1886.
She was the middle of three children in the family of lawyer and congressman Edward Dickinson. She received a Puritan upbringing, which, perhaps, subsequently affected her lifestyle. She grew up a restrained and pious girl. The family was quite religious, and Emily also instilled faith in God.
Education
After graduating from primary school, the future poetess continued her studies at the Academy of her hometown of Amherst from 1840 to 1847. There she studied disciplines such as Latin, arithmetic, psychology, English and literature. Later there was an attempt to study at a female seminary, but Emily spent only six months there and returned home. Since then, her native city has become her permanent habitat, she almost never went beyond its limits for the rest of her life. The exception was a trip to Washington, accompanied by his father, who was supposed to take part in the US Congress.
Becoming a poetess
Of course, asceticism education itself played a role in the reluctance to be open to the public. And as a result, during the life of the poetess, the world saw only an incomplete dozen of her poems. Surprisingly, against the fact that her works were published, Emily Dickinson herself spoke out, books with lyrics of which appeared after her death.
At the age of 14, she lost a friend - her cousin Sofia, after which she began to fall into a state of depression and even needed rehabilitation. This is the first death of a loved one that Emily faced, which, undoubtedly, gave an impetus to the further development of the theme of leaving life, which was one of the main in Dickinson's work. Although after this event, Emily began to actively attend church, but, obviously, not finding real consolation there, she stopped doing it, and she put all her thoughts on the search for the meaning of life and the transience of being into poetic lines.
Dickinson was also familiar with the prose and poetry of the time, in particular with the transcendentalism of Ralph Emerson and the romanticism of William Wordsworth, and shared many of their views. This testified to her desire for all progressive ideas. She even corresponded with the thinker Emerson, hence the philosophical motives of her lyrics.
Personal life
There are many assumptions about the reasons for her voluntary retreat, and lovers of trivial explanations immediately offer unhappy love, they say, but how could it be otherwise? Among her unsuccessful lovers are attributed to their family friend Ben Newton, and student Henry Emmons, and the priest Charles Wadsworth, but biographers do not have any evidence other than pure speculation.
It is true that Emily Dickinson, whose biography is not full of love affairs, never married, although she was not bad by herself.
Yes, this is pretty weird. But perhaps it was her conscious choice, dictated by her worldview: the rich inner world of Emily Dickinson made her a self-sufficient person and without marriage or motherhood. Be that as it may, love lyrics and heart affairs do not appear so often in her poetry, and even if romantic motifs are found, they sound in the context of something more global, for example, the relationship between man and nature, man and the Creator.
The main themes of creativity
She did not exchange for trifles, but wanted to get to the bottom of the essence, therefore she touched the great in her poetry. If we outline the main motives of her works, we can distinguish the following topics: the aesthetic perception of the world by the poet, nature, the inner experiences of man, the opposition of life and death.
About Emily Dickinson it is said: "She died in every poem." Yes, the poetess, as if playing with cat and mouse with death, often imagined herself dead. But the realization that everything can disappear in an instant does not attract, but terrifies and deeply upsets the lyrical heroine Dickinson. And the bright moments of life - that same love, joy - are just a prologue to complete suspended animation.
She laments that death destroys harmony, brings chaos, and therefore seeks to unravel the mystery of immortality, often being disappointed in these searches and realizing that human destiny is loneliness.
But the poetess is not inclined to absolute nihilism, rather, she finds tenderness in simple things, stating the fact that everything amazing is very close, it is like "an angel rents a neighboring house on every street." But, on the other hand, Emily Dickinson, quotes from the poems of which express her thoughts, understands that a person will never comprehend everything, especially nature: “After all, we get farther away from her, the closer we get,” and therefore “Great, that will never come in hand. "
Publication of poems
The fact that Emily writes poetry was known to many, including her relatives. But only after death they were able to realize the scale of her work, when her sister found the drafts.
The first edition of the works saw the world in 1890. But it has undergone many changes. Only in 1955, thanks to Thomas Johnson, a complete collection of her poetry was published in 3 volumes.
Emily Dickinson: translations
Due to religious motives, little is known about her in the post-Soviet space, because before her work was simply ignored.
Of course, nothing can replace the original, but a lot has been done recently to convey the words of the great American poetess to Russian-speaking people. For example, L. Sitnik, A. Gavrilov, A. Grishin, J. Berger and others undertook this work. But still, not every one of Emily Dickinson’s 1800 poems has been translated into Russian. I also do not want to evaluate professional suitability by gender, but there is an opinion that it is precisely the female translator who can perfectly feel and deliver Dickinson's poetry to the listener, so it’s worth recalling the works of T. Stamova and V. Markova.
Nevertheless, I want to sincerely believe that soon this brilliant poetess, who is considered one of the classics of American literature, will become even more readable in Russian.