Emily Dickinson—Amer ican's legendar y poet

江苏盐城市射阳县陈洋中学 于 荣

Jntroduction

艾米莉·狄金森是美国传奇诗人，受过正统的宗教教育，她的青少年时代生活单调而平静。 从二十五岁开始弃绝社交，修女似的闭门不出，在孤独中埋头写诗三十年，留下诗稿1，800余首；生前只发表过七首，其余的都是在她去世后才出版。

Very little is known of Emily Elizabeth Dickinson as the American poet always kept to herself and lived a life ofsolitude. She was born on 10th December 1830 at Amherst， Massachusetts to Edward and Emily Norcross Dickinson. She had an older brother， Austin， and younger sister named Lavinia.

From 1834 to 1847， Emily Dickinson studied at the Amherst Academy， anacademicinstitution that was co-founded by her grandfather，Samuel Fowler Dickinson. In 1847， she studied at the Mout Holyoke Female Seminary (now known as Mount Holyoke College) but returned to Amherst only after a year， and began her own unique life.After returning from the Seminary, Emily withdrew from all social contact and refused to entertain guests.She chose to dress herself only in white and spent most of her time inside her room. She started writing poems at around this time. Her initial forays (尝试)wereconventionalbut later on， she experimented until she developed her own unique style.

The 1860s contributed greatly to Emily Dickinson's writing style and content. The US Civil War broke out in 1861; her closest friends Samuel Bowles moved to Europe for health reasons， and Charles Wadsworth was relocated to San Francisco. In addition， she also had apersistenteye trouble. Although these years were very troublesome for Emily， this could also be considered as the most productive period of her life. During this time， Emily Dickinson wrote around 800 poems.

Emily Dickinson never married and died on May 15， 1886. Her poems were published by her sister， Lavinia in 1886. During her life，only seven poems were published， but Emily Dickinson has penned almost 1，800 poems.

Reading Check

1.People don't know muchabout Emily because _________.

A.she didn't get married all her life

B.she didn't like to appear in public

C.she was fascinated with poems

D.she had a brother and a sister

2.What can we infer from the third paragraph？

A.Emily's writing was disturbed by the US Civil War.

B.Two of her closest friends deserted her in 1861.

C.Charles Wadsworth once lived in San Francisco.

D.Emily developed her own unique style.

Language Study

Ⅰ.Important vocabulary

1.solituden.独居

2.academicadj.学术的

3.withdrawv.脱离（社会）；不与人交往

4.conventionaladj.依照惯例的；墨守成规的

5.persistentadj.持续的

Ⅱ.Sentence for writing

“after + 动名词”引导状语从句的省略

从神学院回来后，艾米丽退出了所有的社交活动，拒绝招待客人。

After________(return) from the Seminary，Emily withdrew from all social contact and refused to entertain guests.