In 1882 , a young bride new to Amherst , Massachusetts asked her neighbor about the occult sister who lived next room access . " You will not permit your married man to go there , I trust , " aver the neighbor . " I proceed in there one day , and in the drawing room I found Emily reclining in the arms of a man . What can you say to that ? " The thread maker neighbors , the gossip continued , " [ had not ] , either of them , any mind of morality . "
Intriguing stuff for Victorian New England — and even more intriguing considering that the woman getting it on was Emily Dickinson , a poet often painted as pure and asocial . But the story of Emily ’s lovemaking life story is more complicated than a forbidden moment on a divan . It involves a family feud , coquettish letters , and in all likelihood a bit of making out .
Scholars have long puzzled over the romantic dichotomy presented by Emily ’s seemingly reclusive existence and her passionate poetry . truthful , Emily became more mysterious and secluded as she got older , but she also led a social , if shelter , living . That extended to wild-eyed relationship , too : Recent scholarshipseems to point to a thwarted engagementwith George Gould , who became a lifelong friend . And historians have asked themselves whetherEmily ’s close distaff friendshipswere platonic or sexual . In fact , one of Emily ’s rumored hook - ups may have been her baby - in - law Sue — the very cleaning lady who warned her neighbour about Emily ’s wayward behaviour .
But the connection of Emily ’s wild night does n’t end there . Though she became more and more socially withdraw as an adult ( for example , she turn away to go downstairs for her begetter ’s funeral , prefer to listen through the room access ) , Emily seems to have fallen in love again in her mid - forty . This time , her lover was Otis Lord , a striking jurist and a close ally of her Father of the Church ’s . During her father ’s life , she could never have openly act on Lord . Freed by her father ’s last , the two seem to have change their relationship . before long after Lord ’s married woman go , Emilywas writing him letterslike this :
Andthis :
But despite Lord ’s long visit , despite Emily ’s seeming desire to marry him , even despite Lord ’s passionate overtures and the " celestial hours " they pass together in the front room , a marriage never came to pass along . Perhaps Lord ’s niece and heir discouraged her uncle from draw it official . ( The niece , Abbie Farley , was even more spiteful than Sue when it came to depict Emily Dickinson — she preferred phrase like " small trollop , " " easy morals , " and " disturbed about man . " ) Perhaps Emily reject to thwart the billet due to epilepsy or another malady . Or did Sue , hurt by Emily ’s neglect , spread more rumors about her sister - in - jurisprudence ’s ethical motive to foreclose the mate ?
If she did , it get back to seize with teeth her : The young bride whom she had warned aside became fascinated with the Dickinson menage in the end — so fascinated that she became Emily ’s literary champion after her destruction … and score Sue ’s husband as part the bargain . Now , over a century later , it seems easy to paint the " virgin recluse " woman - in - blank brushwood . Perhaps we ’d do better to chuck out our misperception of Emily as diffident spinster and envision her as a self - assured lover instead — unashamedly row in Eden—/Ah ! the sea!/Might I but moor—/Tonight in thee !
Sources : think Musically , write Expectantly : New Biographical Information about Emily Dickinson;Lives Like Loaded Guns : Emily Dickinson and Her Family ’s Feuds ; " Emily Dickinson ’s Love Life , " viaThe Emily Dickinson Museum);A Summer of Hummingbirds : Love , Art , and Scandal in the Intersecting Worlds of Emily Dickinson , Mark Twain , Harriet Beecher Stowe , and Martin Johnson Heade;Emily Dickinson;Emily Dickinson Electronic Archives
