Emily Dickinson (poet)

Emily Dickinson was born into a well-known middle class family in Amherst Massachusetts.  A reoccurring theme in many of Dickinson's poems is the subject of death.  It is said that the untimely deaths of several close friends and family members traumatized her deeply.  To the locals she was considered eccentric.  She was known for her for obsession with white clothing and her reluctance to greet guests or even leave her room. Most of her friendships were carried out by correspondence. Dickinson's poems were ahead of her time in many ways.  Typically they contained short lines, lacked titles, and often used slant rhyme, as well as unconventional capitalization and punctuation.  Dickinson was also very humble about her work.  Most of her writing was kept private and wasn't discovered until after her death.