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Dearest friends,

Today I will share with you a poem...

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life. After she studied at the Amherst Academy for seven years in her youth, she spent a short time at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary before returning to her familys house in Amherst. Thought of as an eccentric by the locals, she became known for her penchant for white clothing and her reluctance to greet guests or, later in life, even leave her room. Most of her friendships were therefore carried out by correspondence.
While Dickinson was a prolific private poet, fewer than a dozen of her nearly eighteen hundred poems were published during her lifetime. The work that was published during her lifetime was usually altered significantly by the publishers to fit the conventional poetic rules of the time. Dickinsons poems are unique for the era in which she wrote; they contain short lines, typically lack titles, and often use slant rhyme as well as unconventional capitalization and punctuation. Many of her poems deal with themes of death and immortality, two recurring topics in letters to her friends.
Although most of her acquaintances were probably aware of Dickinsons writing, it was not until after her death in 1886—when Lavinia, Dickinsons younger sister, discovered her cache of poems—that the breadth of Dickinsons work became apparent. Her first collection of poetry was published in 1890 by personal acquaintances Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd, both of whom heavily edited the content. A complete and mostly unaltered collection of her poetry became available for the first time in 1955 when The Poems of Emily Dickinson was published by scholar Thomas H. Johnson. Despite some unfavorable reviews and some skepticism during the late 19th and early 20th century as to Dickinsons literary prowess, she is now almost universally considered to be one of the most important American poets.
When she was eighteen, Dickinsons family befriended a young attorney by the name of Benjamin Franklin Newton. According to a letter written by Dickinson after Newtons death, he had been "with my Father two years, before going to Worcester – in pursuing his studies, and was much in our family." Although their relationship was probably not romantic, Newton was a formative influence and would become the second in a series of older men (after Humphrey) that Dickinson referred to, variously, as her tutor, preceptor or master.
Newton likely introduced her to the writings of William Wordsworth, and his gift to her of Ralph Waldo Emersons first book of collected poems had a liberating effect. She wrote later that he, "whose name my Fathers Law Student taught me, has touched the secret Spring". Newton held her in high regard, believing in and recognizing her as a poet. When he was dying of tuberculosis, he wrote to her, saying that he would like to live until she achieved the greatness he foresaw. Biographers believe that Dickinsons statement of 1862—"When a little Girl, I had a friend, who taught me Immortality – but venturing too near, himself – he never returned"—refers to Newton.
Dickinson was familiar not only with the Bible but also with contemporary popular literature. She was probably influenced by Lydia Maria Childs Letters from New York, another gift from Newton (after reading it, she gushed "This then is a book! And there are more of them!^"). Her brother smuggled a copy of Henry Wadsworth Longfellows Kavanagh into the house for her (because her father might disapprove) and a friend lent her Charlotte Brontës Jane Eyre in late 1849. Jane Eyres influence cannot be measured, but when Dickinson acquired her first and only dog, a Newfoundland, she named him "Carlo" after the character St. John Rivers dog. William Shakespeare was also a potent influence in her life. Referring to his plays, she wrote to one friend "Why clasp any hand but this?" and to another, "Why is any other book needed?"
Now, I must tell you... I am not as fond of poems as I am of novels but when I took these pictures last Saturday I really thought they would go nicely with a poem. And as I am no master of creation, and I have no poem of mine that would go nicely with the Autumn Miracles chased inside these pictures, I scavaged around the authors I like and I know of and I must admit this one resonanted the most with my feelings :) I hope you like it, and if you feel that other poem would match them better, I would be happy to hear from you :) Especially if it is your poem :)

Yours truly,
The LadyBug that awaits her awesome better half...