Emily Dickinson Mesume, Amherst, MA

This was a Poet –
It is That
Distills amazing sense
From Ordinary Meanings
Fr 446

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) was a poet with an exceptional ability to distill “amazing sense” from “ordinary meanings.” Her poetry is now considered among the finest in the English language.



A path described by Emily Dickinson as “just wide enough for two who love” linked the two Dickinson houses, crossing the lawn from the back door of the Homestead to the east piazza of The Evergreens. In the 1860s, Edward and Austin Dickinson planted a low hemlock hedge that spanned the street frontage of both houses. (In 2009 the hedge was replanted and a fence installed to help bring back the Dickinson homes and grounds to their appearance during the period the poet lived and wrote.)

Situated on two high terraces, The Evergreens was surrounded by cultivated planting beds and looked out to the west over a neighbor’s orchard. His wife, Susan, tended flower gardens that were held in high regard by townspeople. The lawn between the Homestead and The Evergreens was carefully arranged with an informal distribution of trees and shrubs meant to suggest natural growth, a mix of local and exotic specimens, and open areas where family members played lawn tennis and badminton.




Such pleasure and pride in Amherst schools was a family trait. The Dickinson family had played an influential and generous role in the founding of many of the educational institutions in the town of Amherst. The district primary school that it seems most likely the Dickinson children attended as youngsters was built on land that had belonged to their grandfather, Samuel Fowler Dickinson. The school Emily Dickinson boasts about in this letter, Amherst Academy, was founded in 1814 by a group of town leaders including her grandfather and Noah Webster, who sat together on the school’s first Board of Trustees. The Academy quickly became known as one of the best private academies in the state, and helped to raise the educational aspirations of the town.


The Dickinson family’s grounds on Main Street consisted of eleven acres of meadow south of the thoroughfare and three acres north of the road on which the Homestead and The Evergreens were situated. The large garden tended by Emily, Lavinia, and their mother flowed down the slope to the east of the Homestead. A large barn stood directly behind the house to shelter the family’s horses, cow, and chickens and provide rooms for the groundskeeper.



"Faith" is a fine invention
For Gentlemen who see!
But Microscopes are prudent
In an Emergency!
Fr202

Emily Dickinson lived in an age defined by the struggle to reconcile traditional Christian beliefs with newly emerging scientific concepts, the most influential being Darwinism. Dickinson's struggles with faith and doubt reflect her society's diverse perceptions of God, nature, and humankind.