![]() ![]() In this curriculum unit, students will explore Dickinson's poetry as well as her letters to Higginson and her sister-in-law Susan Huntington Gilbert Dickinson. Similarly, Dickinson's letters expose a poet fully engaged in the process of crafting a persona. Ultimately, reading Emily Dickinson's letters alongside her poems helps students to analyze how Dickinson perceived herself and her poetry and consider the ways in which a writer constructs a "supposed person." These correspondences-both professional and private-reveal a poet keenly aware of the interdependent relationship between poet and reader. ![]() ![]() She asked, "Are you too deeply occupied to say if my verse is alive?" Long perceived as a recluse who wrote purely in isolation, Dickinson in reality maintained many dynamic correspondences throughout her lifetime and specifically sought out dialogues on her poetry. In 1862, Emily Dickinson, one of the most innovative poets of the 19th century, wrote a letter to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, an editor, writer, and longtime contributor to the Atlantic Monthly who would become her long-time correspondent and mentor. "When I state myself, as the representative of the verse, it does not mean me, but a supposed person." ![]()
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