Emily Dickinson and the Influences of Death
Emily Dickinson wrote about many things: life, love, nature, death and many other things
that she encountered in her life, however it is believed the influence of death played a
major role in many of her works, especially her later works. She was thought to be a
“consumptive child,” (Emily Dickinson Museum) beings the beliefs at the time were that
consumption ran inf families–giving a sense that Emily has always been dancing with
death throughout her life. Later in life it is hinted at the her isolation was probably brought
on by an anxiety disorder of some sort thus giving light to her break down in 1884
followed by her death in 1886 (Encyclopedia.com).
Emily Dickinson suffered a large amount of loss in her life particularly through the 1880s
(EDM). She lost her father in 1874 then lost her mother in 1882 after a stroke some years
earlier. She also suffered through the death of Gib, her beloved nephew (EDM). Each of
these deaths affected Emily’s “delicate” condition. However, many of her most famous
poems about death and illness were not written during this period of time.
Emily wrote the majority of her poems between 1858 and 1866 when she was in her
twenties and thirties. In this time she wrote over eleven hundred poems, including the
majority of her more well known poems. One of her more popular death poems is It was
not death, for I stood up which in way inlays a sense of overcoming death. It speaks of
