With the thought of death, many people become terrified as if it were some creature lurking behind a door ready to capture them at any moment. Unlike many, Emily Dickinson was infatuated with death and sought after it only to try and help answer the many questions which she pondered so often. Her poetry best illustrates the answers as to why she wrote about it constantly. She explains her reason for writing poetry, I had a terror I could tell to none-and so I sing, as the Boy does by the Burying Ground-because I am afraid.(Johnson xxiii). There is no doubt that Emily Dickinson is frightened of death and the unknown life after it. To release her fears, she simply sings her song in poetry. Still, little is known to why she truly wrote of death and life after death; yet it is apparent that many have tried to explore the subject at hand.Growing up in the 1830s, Emily Dickinson spent nearly her entire life in the Amherst, Massachusetts, house were she composed many of the unforgettable poetry she is famous for today. Dickinson, often labeled as the Virginal nun of Amherst, has been said to be anything but a total recluse (Conarro 71). She spent her time reading influential books and magazines such as the Springfield, Massachusetts Republican, the Bible, George Eliot, Keats, Emerson, Sir Thomas Brown, and especially Shakespeare. Emily Dickinson also spent numerous hours tending to her garden and relishing the intimacy of long-distance relationships (Conarro 71-2). One such relationship was a preacher named Wadsworth, whom she loved dearly. Johnson points out the reason for her act of seclusion was that, Wadsworths removal was so terrifying that she feared she might never be able to control her emotions of her reason without his guidance (Johnson xxii). Because Wadsworth was her only mentor at the time, Dickinson feared she would have no one to turn to for direction. To add to the upset of the death of a loved one, the pres...
