Emily Dickinson was never in the lime light for her writing, instead she had a rather bland life. She was born on December 10th, 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts. (Wolff 3) For a while, Emily Dickinson was extremely social, attending any parties and showboating to all of her father’s political friends. Her life was seen as bland because she lived most of her …show more content…
Emily Dickinson and Sappho were both famous for their poetry of love. Emily Dickinson’s poetry of love is complex as it speaks of her love while showing her loneliness. In the poem “I cannot live with you-” she speaks of this love, which many believe to be about Charles Wadsworth:
“And were You - saved -
And I - condemned to be
Where You were not -
That self - were Hell to Me –” (3365).
In this particular stanza of the poem, we see the battle of not being with the one a person loves is hell. This poem expresses great emotion in a sophisticated way as readers are challenged to configure her voice. It makes sense that this poem may possibly be for Wadsworth. He was a married man who Emily Dickinson may have had a deep affection for. This poem expresses a forbidden love, or a love that cannot be acted upon. One stanza in particular shows this sense of struggle:
“They’d judge us- How-
For you-served Heaven- you know,
Or sought to-
I could not”