The world of Emily Dickinson

Dr. Charles R. Anderson, professor of American literature at Johns Hopkins University, discusses the life, family, and poetry of Emily Dickinson, who lived in Amherst, Massachusetts from 1830-1886. At age 28 Dickinson fell in love with a married minister, her personality changed, and she began to write poetry, publishing just seven poems and keeping nearly 2,000 in her room. He seclusion became extreme as she renounced the world. However, her poetry keenly expressed New England village life as a microcosm of the larger world. Dr. Anderson discusses some of her more satirical poems, such as "The Show is not the Show" (no. 1206) comparing the human race to a menagerie. Other poems reveal the travesty of brokers and bankers, the village gossips ("The Leaves like Women interchange," no. 987), and the conventional ladies of the town ("What Soft-Cherubic Creatures," no. 130). However, Dickinson shows understanding and compassion for the town drunkard in "The Ditch is dear to the Drunkard."