Photo courtesy Amherst College Library.
New poem added/annotated: Emily Dickinson, “The Brain—is wider than the Sky—” (632). We quote this one in our header image, so we’re making it our first Featured Poem.
Dickinson had one of the most expansive minds in the history of poetry; also one of the weirdest. A skinny Congressman’s daughter from Amherst, Massachusetts, she stopped leaving the house in her thirties and devoted her entire adult life to writing. Scholars think she may have been gay, straight, or bi; had a crush on her sister-in-law, a famous judge, or God; suffered from epilepsy, manic depression, psychosomatic blindness, or all or none of the above. At her peak, she cranked out great poems like some people crank out diary entries. (Or blog posts.)
More info on Dickinson at Poetry Foundation.
More info on Dickinson at The Academy of American Poets.
