4 Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson was a very famous American poet. She wrote about 2,000 poems,but only four were published in her lifetime. No one wanted to publish her work because it was different from what other poets wrote. After Dickinson died, her poems were finally published. Then she became famous.

Some things about Emily Dickinson's life are strange and mysterious. She was born in 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a rich and well-known family. She had a brother and a sister. Emily was shy and quiet, but she had friends. She went to parties like other young girls her age and met young men. But she did not fall in love with any of them and never married.

After a while, Emily Dickinson did not want to see her friends. She stayed home. She read, worked in the garden, and wrote poetry. Dickinson wrote her poems everywhere. She wrote them on bits of newspaper or anything that was near. Later, she wrote them out carefully. When she was 28, something happened. Dickinson was very upset. No one knows why. Some people say she loved a married man. Others say she was unhappy because nobody wanted to publish her poetry. She continued to write anyway.

As she got older, Dickinson wanted to be alone more often. When someone came to the house,she ran upstairs to hide.For the last 16 years of her life, she never left her home. The curtains were always closed. She dressed only in white. One day Dickinson became ill, but she did not let the doctor in her room. He could only see her from the doorway.

Dickinson died at the age of 55. Her sister found her poems, and they were finally published. Sadly, Emily Dickinson did not live to enjoy her great success.