Emily Dickinson, Poet

Happy Birthday, Miss Emily Dickinson! Born in Amherst, Massachusetts on December 10, 1886, she is revered as one of America's most beloved and prolific poets.

A fascinating figure, she lived a most reclusive life in almost isolation from the outside world, while ensconced within the life of her nuclear family.  She read quite widely and also actively maintained many correspondences with a number of individuals.

Fewer than fair dozen of her nearly 1800 poems were published in her lifetime.  Many of her poems dealt with themes of death and immortality.  Yet as we celebrate her 128th birthday, we can rest in the words contained in the first verse of her most famous poem entitled:
 "Hope is the Thing With Feathers," 

  Hope is the thing with feathers  
  That perches in the soul  
  And sings the tune without the words  
  And never stops at all.  

So, if this has inspired you to read more of her poems and learn more about her rather eccentric life, check out these library resources:

The Poems of Emily Dickinson, The Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson, My Wars are Laid Away in Books by Habegger , Miss Emily by Muten,  Letters From the Emily Dickinson Room by Agodon and My Letter to the World and Other Poems by Dickinson.

Kathleen Ahern
Children's Librarian