The Life Of Emily Dickens Essay Example For Students

The Life Of Emily Dickens Essay Emily Dickinson was raised in a traditional New England home in the mid 1800s. Her father along with the rest of the family had become Christians and she alone decided to rebel against that and reject the Church. She like many of her contemporaries had rejected the traditional views in life and adopted the new transcendental outlook. Massachusetts, the state where Emily was born and raised in, before the transcendental period was the epicenter of religious practice. Founded by the puritans, the feeling of the avenging had never left the people. After all of the Great Awakenings and religious revivals the people of New England began to question the old ways. What used to be the focal point of all lives was now under speculation and often doubted. People began to search for new meanings in life. People like Emerson and Thoreau believed that answers lie in the individual. Emerson set the tone for the era when he said, Whoso would be a man, must be a non-conformist. Emily Dickinson believed and practiced this philosophy. When she was young she was brought up by a stern and austere father. In her childhood she was shy and already different from the others. Like all the Dickinson children, male or female, Emily was sent for formal education in Amherst Academy. After attending Amherst Academy with conscientious thinkers such as Helen Hunt Jackson, and after reading many of Emersons essays, she began to develop into a free willed person. Many of her friends had converted to Christianity, her family was also putting enormous amount of pressure for her to convert. No longer the submissive youngster she would not bend her will on such issues as religion, literature and personal associations. She maintained a correspondence with Rev. Charles Wadsworth over a subeztial period of time. Even though she rejected the Church as a entity she never did reject or accept God. Wadsworth appealed to her because he had an incredibly powerful mind and deep emotions. When he left the East in 1861 Emily was scarred and expressed her deep sorrow in three successive poems in the following years. They were never romantically involved but their relationship was apparently so profound that Emilys feelings for him she sealed herself from the outside world. Her life became filled with gloom and despair until she met Judge Ot is P. Lord late in her life. Realizing that they were well into their lives they never were married. When Lord passed away Emilys health condition which has been hindered since childhood worsened. We will write a custom essay on The Life Of Emily Dickens specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now In Emilys life the most important things to her were love, religion, individuality and nature. When discussing these themes she followed her lifestyle and broke away from traditional forms of writing and wrote with an intense energy and complexity never seen before and rarely seen today. She was a rarity not only because of her poetry but because she was one of the first female pioneers into the field of poetry. Emily often speaks of love in her poems, but she did it in such a way that would make people not want to fall in love. She writes of parting, separation and loss. This is supported by the experiences she felt with Wadsworth and Otis P. Lord. Not with a club the heart is broken,nor with a stone; A whip so small you could not see it,Ive knownThis seems to be an actual account of the emotions she experienced during her relationship with Otis Lord. Individuality played a pervasive role in her life as a result of her bout with separation. Emily did not conform to society. She did not believe it was societys place to dictate to her how she should lead her life. Her poems reflect this sense of rebellion and revolution against tradition. .ub394ae809779242291a44e38b361626d , .ub394ae809779242291a44e38b361626d .postImageUrl , .ub394ae809779242291a44e38b361626d .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .ub394ae809779242291a44e38b361626d , .ub394ae809779242291a44e38b361626d:hover , .ub394ae809779242291a44e38b361626d:visited , .ub394ae809779242291a44e38b361626d:active { border:0!important; } .ub394ae809779242291a44e38b361626d .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .ub394ae809779242291a44e38b361626d { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .ub394ae809779242291a44e38b361626d:active , .ub394ae809779242291a44e38b361626d:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .ub394ae809779242291a44e38b361626d .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .ub394ae809779242291a44e38b361626d .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .ub394ae809779242291a44e38b361626d .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .ub394ae809779242291a44e38b361626d .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .ub394ae809779242291a44e38b361626d:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .ub394ae809779242291a44e38b361626d .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .ub394ae809779242291a44e38b361626d .ub394ae809779242291a44e38b361626d-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .ub394ae809779242291a44e38b361626d:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Reflective Response - "The Telltale Heart" Essay From all the jails the boys and girlsEcstatically leap,- Beloved, only afternoonThat prison doesnt keep. In this poem Emily shows her feelings towards formalized schooling. Being a product of reputable college one would think that she would be in favor of this. But as her beliefs in transcendentalism grew so did her belief in individuality. Emily also went against the Church which was an extreme rarity of the time. Similar to many other that shared her beliefs she too did not think that a set religion was the way for salvation. Some keep the Sabbath going to Church; I keep it staying at home, With a bobolike for a chorister, With an orchard for a dome. According to this poem Emily clearly states that nature is her source of guidance and she has little need for the Church as an institution. Like Thoreau, Emily believed that people need to underezd nature before they could begin to comprehend humanity because humanity was just a part of nature. Unlike many other she felt that nature was beautiful and must be understood. Has it feet like water-lilies?Has it feathers like a bird?Is it brought from famous countriesOf which I have never heard? (Will there really be a morning?)Further on in the poem she goes on to ask if the scholar or some wise man from the skies knows where to find morning. It can be inferred that morning, something so common place and taken for granted, cannot be grasped by even the greatest so called minds. Emily also saw the frightful part of nature, death was an extension of the natural order. Probably the most prominent theme in her writing is death. She took death in a relatively casual way when compared to the puritan beliefs that surrounded her life. Death to her is just the next logical step to life and compares it to a carriage ride, or many other common place happenings. Because I could not stop for Death-He kindly stopped for me-The Carriage held but just Ourselves-And Immortality. Life according to Emily is brief and the people living out their lives have little control. In this short lifeThat only lasts an hour,How much, how little,Is within out power!However non-religious she may appear and however insignificant she believes life to be she does however show some signs in accepting life after death. This world is not conclusion;A sequel ezds beyond,Invisible, as music,But positive as sound. To Emily the most important things in her life were religion, individuality, nature and death. She may not have believed in God but He did have a profound impact throughout her childhood. Emily and Emerson alike felt the most important thing was to maintain ones individuality as she did. She was fascinated by both nature and death and she attempted to explain both in her writings.

How to Research Loyalist Ancestors

How to Research Loyalist Ancestors Loyalists, sometimes referred to as Tories, Royalists, or Kings Men, were American colonists who remained loyal to the British Crown during the years leading up to and including the American Revolution (1775–1783). Historians estimate that as many as 500,000 people - fifteen to twenty percent of the population of the Colonies- opposed the revolution. Some of them were active in their opposition, actively speaking out against the rebels, serving with British units during the war, or supporting the King and his forces as couriers, spies, guides, suppliers, and guards. Others were more passive in their choice of position. Loyalists were present in large numbers in New York, a refuge for persecuted Loyalists from September 1776 until its evacuation in 1783. There were also large groups in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and in the southern colonies of North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.1 Elsewhere they were a large minority of the population but least numerous in Massachusetts Virginia. Life as a Loyalist Because of their beliefs, Loyalists in the Thirteen Colonies were often treated as traitors. Active Loyalists may have been coerced into silence, stripped of their property, or even banished from the Colonies. In areas under Patriot control, Loyalists could not sell land, vote, or work in occupations such as doctor, lawyer, or schoolteacher. The outright hostility against the Loyalists both during and following the war ultimately resulted in the flight of about 70,000 Loyalists to British territories outside the colonies. Of these, approximately 46,000 went to Canada and Nova Scotia; 17,000 (primarily Southern Loyalists and their slaves) to the Bahamas and West Indies; and 7,000 to Britain. Among the Loyalists numbered not only colonists of British heritage, but also Scots, Germans, and Dutch, plus individuals of Iroquois ancestry and former African-American slaves. Begin with a Literature Survey If you have successfully traced your ancestry back to an individual living in America during the American Revolution, and clues seem to point to him being a possible Loyalist, then a survey of existing published source materials on Loyalists is a good place to begin. Many of these can actually be researched online through free sources that publish digitized version of historical books and journals. Use search terms such as loyalists or royalists and your area (state or country of interest) to explore available resources online in Google and in each of the historical books collections listed in 5 Free Sources for Historical Books Online. Examples of what you can find online include: Siebert, Wilbur H. The Loyalists of Pennsylvania. The Ohio State University Bulletin, 24 (April 1920). Digitized copy. Archive.org. http://archive.org/stream/pennsyloyalist00siebrich#page/n3/mode/2up : 2013.Lambert, Robert Stansbury. South Carolina Loyalists in the American Revolution, second edition. Digital book. Clemson: Clemson University Digital Press, 2010. clemson.edu/cedp/cudp/pubs/lambert/lambert.pdf : 2013. When searching specifically for historical publications, try various combinations of search terms such as United Empire Loyalists or loyalists pennsylvania or south carolina royalists. Terms such as Revolutionary War or American Revolution can turn up useful books as well. Periodicals are another excellent source of information on Loyalists. To find articles on this topic in historical or genealogical journals, conduct a search in PERSI, an index to over 2.25 million genealogy and local history articles appearing in publications of thousands of local, state, national and international societies and organizations. If you have access to a university or other large library, the JSTOR database is another good source for historical journal articles. Search for Your Ancestor in Loyalist Lists During and after the Revolution, various lists of known Loyalists were created which may name your ancestor. The United Empire Association of Canada has probably the largest list of known or suspected Loyalists. Called the Directory of Loyalists, the list includes about 7,000 names compiled from a variety of sources. Those marked as proven, are proven United Empire Loyalists; the rest are either unproven names found identified in at least one resource or those who have been proven NOT to be Loyalists. Most of the lists published during the war as proclamations, in newspapers, etc. have been located and published. Look for these online, in U.S. state archives, in Canadian provincial archives, and in archives and other repositories in other areas where Loyalists settled, such as Jamaica. Sources: 1. Robert Middlekauff, The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), pp 549–50.