You know her name. You saw it following quoted lines of poetry; printed on greeting cards, cross-stitched and framed on your grandmother's bathroom wall, and engraved into silver medallions. Considered one of the greatest American poets, her work is not foreign to you. You know his name. Say it. Emily Dickinson. And boy, was she crazy! …certainly, most geniuses are. Emily Dickinson devoted most of her privileged, reclusive life to her art. She demonstrated a brilliant talent for lyricism, unconventional forms, syntactic experimentation and paved the way for the possibilities of poetic craft. The use of fragmentation in his poetry eliminates excessive verbosity and gets straight to the heart of the problem. This compressed lyrical usage with its distinctive refusal to conform became a hallmark of modernist poetry in the 20th century. So yeah, she's a big deal. Much of Dickinson's work relies heavily on the musical quality of her verse. One approach to organizing his poems was to write in the “fourteen” structure. This meter is the form of nursery rhymes, ballads and church hymns. Ballads were originally used for storytelling, where the words were set to music. When reading Dickinson's poetry aloud, one can easily perceive the rhythmic quality that makes up the images that tell the story. The provided example of Emily Dickinson's poetry read aloud does not contain music, but the animation and gentle cadence of the speaker's voice provide a melodic nuance to the story. NATURE Along with the selected reading above, Dickinson's work reflects a strong respect for the natural world. This appreciation of nature is reflected through numerous recurring references and images. In poem #627, "The bees have become butterflies... middle of paper... gh me, I can live longer, he must live longer than me, for I only have the power to kill, Sans – the power of dying –” (p. 1691-2) One thing is clear, and that is Dickinson’s intention to protect and guard “The Landlord.” The end of this poem resonates with the power of the gun, as an instrument of the muse. The tragedy of the inanimate object is that it will never die, because it has never lived. Meant to pass eternity from one owner to another, this loaded pistol is only worth something when used by another. Emily Dickinson wrote hundreds of short poems during her life. Having only read a very small percentage of her work, it is clear to me that this woman's recognized genius is well deserved and that I still have to learn from her. Dickinson's poetry touches on life, death, nature, religion, sexuality, identity, gender roles, and that's just the surface..