The Life of Emily DickinsonSasha Peterson1American poet Emily Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts. Her family was well known throughout the small community. Along with her parents, her older brother William, and her younger sister Lavinia, Emily lived in a large house called The Homestead. Emily attended classes at the Amherst Academy as a child. She studied English, classical literature, Latin, history, and math. The young girl also took a class in botany, the study of plants.2Emily studied at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary for a short time as a teenager. For reasons that remain unclear, the young woman returned home shortly after classes began. Some scholars suspect that Emily was ill, while others believe that she was just homesick. She continued her education at home by reading the works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Shakespeare. Emily preferred reading to almost any other activity. She even named her dog after a character in one of Charlotte Brontë’s novels.3When Emily was eighteen, family friend Benjamin Franklin Newton recognized her budding talent as a poet. He encouraged her to continue writing, and he introduced her to the works of William Wordsworth and Ralph Waldo Emerson. These authors became two of Emily’s most important influences.4Emily’s botany studies helped her become a skilled gardener. The Homestead’s gardens were known throughout the community for their beauty. Many of Emily’s poems speak of her love of nature and gardens. Her poetry also reflects her religious upbringing. Her work often examined the nature of life and imagined what might happen after death.5Of the almost 1,800 poems that Emily wrote, less than a dozen were published during her lifetime. Her published poems were changed quite a bit to fit the poetic rules of the age. Emily’s work puzzled magazine editors. Her poems were usually short, with no title. Emily often capitalized words in the middle of a line and she put periods in unusual places. Her use of slant rhyme was also an issue. In a slant rhyme, the vowel or consonant sounds don’t always match. The editors of the time were more familiar with perfect rhymes, in which the sounds matched up. All of this made it difficult for people to accept Emily’s work.6As Emily got older, she became less sociable. Though she continued to correspond with her friends through letters, she rarely left her family’s home. Many of her neighbors found this behavior to be very strange. The one thing that didn’t change was Emily’s love of words. She continued to write poetry until her death on May 15, 1886. Before passing away, Emily asked her sister to burn her poems and letters. Lavinia could not allow her sister’s work to be destroyed, so she worked with family friends to put Emily’s poems into a collection. Emily’s first volume of poetry was published in 1890, four years after her death. Though Emily never knew success in her lifetime, she is now admired as one of the best American poets in history.QuestionWhich organizational pattern does the author use in this passage?ResponsesA compare and contrastcompare and contrastB chronological orderchronological orderC cause and effectcause and effectD logical order

Emily DickinsonCarole JenkinsThe grammatical errors in this passage are intentional.(1) Emily Dickinson is regarded as one of the greatest American poets. (2) She was born in 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a very prominent family. (3) Her childhood was normal, filled with friends, activities, and having fun. (4) As she grew older, she began to isolate herself and even to refuse to leave her home. (5) In her latter years, she wore only white and would not let anyone but her family see her. (6) She spent most of her time alone writing poetry. (7) During her lifetime, she published only seven of her poems, and she published those anonymously. (8) After her death in 1886, her sister discovered packets of her poems in her drawer. (9) Four years later, her first books of poems were published.(10) Her poetry is wonderful to read. (11) Concrete imagery was used by her to illustrate abstract concepts, such as love and death. (12) Her unusual use of capitalization and punctuation and her use of irregular meter and rhyme make her poetry unique.QuestionWhat does prominent mean in sentence 2?ResponsesA financially unstablefinancially unstableB scandolous and infamousscandolous and infamousC reclusive and secretivereclusive and secretiveD well known and important

Emily Dickinson18.   19th century American poet Emily Dickinson had a unique style.         Her style defied convention and was considered extremely radical for her time.         In poetry circles, she is known for all of the following characteristics of style EXCEPT:Group of answer choicesthe use of dashes and dotscapitalizing words in various parts of a line for Emphasis.the use of vivid imagery.her ability to describe abstract concepts like faith, love, or hope with concrete images.some sexually provocative and pornographic poetry that was considered radical and shocking because it was written by a woman.she experimented with non-traditional vocabulary.

Which comparison-contrast statement is most effective?A.While a majority of Emily Dickinson's works were published after her death, Whitman's most famous work, Leaves of Grass, was published during his lifetime.B.Though they lived during the same time period, Dickinson wrote compact poems about ordinary events, while Whitman wrote longer poems about public life and well-known events.C.Though Dickinson wrote mostly from her home in Amherst, Massachusetts, and Whitman wrote from his home in New Jersey, both wrote during the 1800s.D.Both were important 19th-century poets, but Dickinson was famous for her reclusive lifestyle, while Whitman enjoyed being a part of public life and conversing with many people.SUBMITarrow_backPREVIOUS

Select all that applyWhich would be appropriate general information sources to find background information on major American poets of the nineteenth century? Select all that apply.Multiple select question.“Song of Myself,” one of nineteenth-century American poet Walt Whitman’s most iconic poemsThe Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature, which compiles author biographies, important texts, and developments in the history of American literatureThe Norton Anthology of American Literature, which collects the best works by the most important authors in American literatureThe Lonely House: A Biography of Emily Dickinson by author Paul Brody

Critics often claim that Edith Wharton, one of the most influential American writers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, came to writing later in life, noting that she didn't publish her first novel until she was 40 years old. However, many don't recognize her childhood fascination with writing. By the age of seventeen, she had already completed a novella entitled Fast and Loose and had had many poems published, though all anonymously, since writing was considered improper for a woman of her class. Thus, those who primarily view Wharton as someone who came to writing later in life -------Which choice logically completes the text? risk misrepresenting the influence that her marriage and travels had on her writing.eliminateoverlook important early stages of her development as a writer.eliminatemay draw inaccurate conclusions about how Wharton felt about her own work. eliminatetend to read Wharton's works in an overly simplistic manner.