Emily Dickinson Emily Dickinson was a very complex figure, and everyone tries to claim her for their camp - Cultists, Christians, Psychiatrists, Sardinians, etc., - but I guess the truth is that, although there's a certain amount of truth in all these positions, Emily Dickinson is just too big to be contained. She bursts free of all categories. Like her poems she explodes into a multiplicity of meanings, perhaps because, like them she wasn't about …showed first 75 words of 289 total…

…showed last 75 words of 289 total…death and love. She can be cryptic and her references and allusions are sometimes too private for us to catch. She can also be amazingly terse. Emily Dickinson is an extremely powerful and misunderstood poet and, indeed, have spent several ultimately worthwhile hours poring over her short poems to discover the sexual/spiritual depths. For the record: I think part of Dickinson's persona is sadomachistic, but it is only a piece of a complex puzzle.