Emily Dickinson: Poet and Recluse To begin to understand the
reclusiveness of the American poet Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
requires empathy with her personality and with what she crafted
from her psychology and life experiences. As her personality
defined itself over the years, she shaped the reclusion for
which she became famous. Poetry and her talent and creativity
refined and confirmed to her, like ongoing feedback, her
distinct view of solitude and the universe. This is not to deny
the valid argument of many feminist literary scholars who note
that men writers are seen as using literary creativity to
transcend their circumstances, while women writers are seen as
using that creativity merely to cope. Emily Dickinson is indeed
probably the greatest American poet and a most original voice,
and the fact that she never published or intended to publish her
poems is a strong statement of "art for art's sake," of
creativity for personal transcendence versus fame and the need
for external forces to validate her i