How Did Emily Dickinson's Life Affect Her Poetry

Emily Dickinson is a household name for any person who has taken interest in the field of poetry. With famous works such as: “I taste a liquor never brewed”, “Wild nights - Wild nights!”, and “ I felt a funeral, in my Brain”, gave her an undeniable reputation as a powerhouse writer in 19th century American literature. Not all readers may know of her seclusive lifestyle and how it affected her writing and her mental health. Born December 10, 1830 in Massachusetts, where she ended up living most of, if not, all her life, Dickinson was a bright mind at an early age. Favored by her teachers for having a strong creative sense and original thinking, she was able to start her writing that would eventually become how it is known today with much encouragement
Some sensory images would be “And creak across my Soul”, “As all the Heavens were a Bell” (Dickinson). The poem is about being conscious after death, how it would feel, what someone would hear, at least in the ears of Dickinson. It is a morbid poem to say the least. Emily Dickinson, liberally, is writing and describing mostly through the things she can hear. Consequently, she cannot see and her feelings are expressed through the dark noises she experiences. Dickinson says that she felt a funeral in her brain.
The first stanza is interesting, as many of people have attended funerals and know of funeral rituals and such. But Dickinson explores what it would be to be ‘one’ with the funeral as if you were the funeral. The ability to relate is difficult because grief is a common and recognizable feeling, but nothing to this extent. And the readers realize this as the poem progresses and that this is not your normal funeral. This is not your normal grief. This is something different, and entirely personal. The speaker describes the treading. She hears people walking “to and fro”(Dickinson). She is under the impression that people are aware of what she is hearing. But this is not the case. Dickinson personifies her feelings and entities by capitalizing certain words to make them proper nouns. The Funeral, for example, is capitalized because she feels it is an entity itself, something
Heaven is brought up and there are bells ringing and waiting for her, she can “hear” heaven calling, so to speak. She cannot see what is going on around her, but she can hear and feel everything. In the third line, Dickinson feels she is changing. She no longer feels human. This is why she says that she has become “some strange Race”(Dickinson). The word “Silence” is capitalized because it is personified to be something that is controlling her voice and ability to speak. This could possibly be what makes her a “strange Race”. Soon she realizes she is now alone. Words like “Wrecked” and “solitary” (Dickinson) are strong words used to express