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Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) possessed an inquisitive mind and a keen eye for detail. As a result, her poems frequently transform close observations of the everyday world into fodder for metaphysical speculations about life, death, time, and eternity. Dickinson is well known for often writing in ballad stanzas, which give her poems their characteristic sing-song quality. Yet she also relentlessly experimented within this form. Perhaps most obvious is her liberal use of dashes (–). She also pushed against the traditional preference for end-stopped poetry by frequently allowing ideas and images to overrun the line. But most significant is Dickinson’s revolutionary use of slant rhyme, which she wielded with complex effects on both sound and sense. Dickinson lived her entire life in two houses in Amherst, Massachusetts. Home, for her, was a holy place, and she spent very little time away. Even so, she lived a rich life filled with meaningful relationships she cultivated through extensive correspondence. Dickinson published very few poems in her lifetime. It wasn’t until the 1890s, when her friend Mabel Todd assumed the task of editing them, that her posthumous reputation began to grow. Today she is widely considered one of America’s greatest and most original poets.

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