In the poems of Emily Dickinson, there are many instances in which she refers to her seclusion and her loneliness, and how wonderful the two can be. In a book entitled, Emily Dickenson: Singular Poet, by Carl Dommermuth, she writes: "She (Dickinson) apparently enjoyed a normal social life as a school girl, but in later years would seldom leave her home. She was passionate yet distant." This distance Dommermuth speaks of is quite evident in Dickinson's works. Dickinson not only loves her loneliness but also feels as though she cannot live without it.

Emily Dickinson lived most of her time on this earth, from 1830-1886, in the small New England town of Amherst. New England was where the seeds of Puritanism took hold, and the Dickinson family was well-rooted there, and could trace their roots back to the "Great Migration" of Puritans to New England in 1630. The Dickinson's...