Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born in 1830 in Amherst Massachusetts. Rightly regarded as a major American poet, her life was sheltered, introverted, and reclusive. Despite writing over 1800 poems, only a dozen or so were published during her lifetime.

Her structures and wordings are at times difficult to get to grips with, though recurring themes of religion and death certainly shadow many of her works. At her death is 1886, it is likely her work might have been lost had it not been for a publication by her sister. Indeed it was only in the 1950s that a complete and unedited collection of her works was published.

In the ensuing half century she has gradually climbed into the pantheon of Greats.