Emily Dickinson

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Emily appears to me to be obsessed with death and a believer in religion. She seems so sad...I can only wonder if she had phobias?

-- Anonymous, February 23, 2000

Answers

I don't think she had phobia's, but she did seem sad. I think that she was sad at times, but she was still obviously able to see the beauty in life as well. Besides the numerous poems on death and funerals, there were also poems on nature, and the beauty of sunrises, and trees. While she may of had her bouts of melancholy, she still enjoyed life. I also think, as was said in class, that during her time death wasn't the morbid thing it is now. Death was a normal thing and people were adjusted to that. I think she put that feeling in her poems as well, because while the poems were about death, they were not scary, or dreary, but almost peaceful, as if death were just the calm, restful ending to a good life.

-- Anonymous, February 25, 2000

Emily is not obsessed with death she is an artist of words and life in general. She looks deep into the soul and deep into her surroundings as she writes. You can not read any of her poems without thinking what her true meaning is. She incorporates nature into the messages that she is conveying. Sometimes it is about death but mostly it is about things we take for granted like love, death and just living.

-- Anonymous, February 26, 2000

I don't believe that Emily was obsessed with death or religion. I think that she was a melancholy person that liked to write about everything that she thought of. Everyone thinks of death, nature, and love and that is what she wrote about. I think that she was a very loving person yet I see a side of her that was very sad at times and this is when she wrote her best.

-- Anonymous, March 03, 2000

The fact that Emily wrote about death is only because that is what she felt she could write about successfully. Maybe she liked death. Death is a very powerful thing, and it affects people in many different ways. Some people are afraid of it, while others are very interested in it. I think Emily was one of these people that is very interested in death. It is very possible that she lead a sad and lonely life, and death may have been her way of thinking that there is a better place for all of us.

-- Anonymous, March 06, 2000

Emily reminds me of Miss Havisham in Great Expectations, only not psychotic. Marriage didn't quite work out and they both hid themselves away from the world in self-imposed seclusion. Emily at least used her time creating poetry instead of destroying peoples lives. Maybe Emily wasn't so unusual in her sadness. Since she was a talented writer she could put those feelings down on paper whereas most women were just to busy to take the time to write.

-- Anonymous, March 18, 2000


I feel that Emily Dickinson just found her interest in death and religion. They were the things she felt comfortable writting about. She was able to let out her feelings when she wrote. I do not think that she is obsessed.

-- Anonymous, April 04, 2000

I don't think that everyone, including Emily has to have a phobia or fear or sadness about something in order to write deeply about it. Emily wrote from her soul, and it didn't necessarily mean that she was experiencing a hardship. You can wish for happiness, but not feel it directly and in a way maybe that was what Emily was trying to prove.

-- Anonymous, June 06, 2000

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