1. Emily Dickinson By: Michaela Brocker

2. Brief Bio • Emily Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830 in the town of Amherst, Massachusetts. She lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life. Although Dickinson was a private poet, fewer than a dozen of her nearly eighteen hundred poems were published during her lifetime. The work that was published during her lifetime was usually altered significantly by the publishers to fit the conventional poetic rules of the time. Most of her work became apparent after her death in 1886 when her younger sister found them. Her first collection of poetry was published in 1890 by personal acquaintances Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd, which they both heavily edited the content. Despite unfavorable reviews and skepticism of her literary prowess during the late 19th and early 20th century, critics now consider Dickinson to be a major American poet.

3. Criticism of her works • Some peoples interpretation of Dickinson is that most of her poetry is about religious questioning. • Some poems were unfinished. • More than one version exists of a number of poems. • In her letters, she sometimes writes poems as prose and prose as poetry, so that it is hard to distinguish them. • Her occasionally idiosyncratic spelling, punctuation, and word choice can be distracting to readers, so that editors have to decide whether to change her text to conform to modern usage

4. “A Slash of Blue” A slash of Blue— A sweep of Gray— Some scarlet patches on the way, Compose an Evening Sky— A little purple—slipped between— Some Ruby Trousers hurried on— A Wave of Gold— A Bank of Day— This just makes out the Morning Sky.

5. Rhyme scheme • Line 1- A • Line 2-B • Line 3-B • Line 4-C • Line 5-D • Line 6-E • Line 7-F • Line 8-B • Line 9-C

6. Meter, Sound devices, figurative language, and theme. • It has an iambic meter. • It has a repetition of vowel sounds and repetition of words beginning with “s”. • Figurative language is a slash of blue, a sweep of gray and a wave of gold. • The theme is describing the day ending and beginning.

8. Resources • http://www.famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/emily_dickinson/poems/5384 • http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/dickinson.html • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Dickinson • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lo4AzZuG5qQ&feature=related