If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again…
I shall not live in vain.
Painting: The First Grief by Daniel Ridgway Knight (1839-1924)
About Emily Dickinson
Born on December 10, 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts, Emily Dickinson left school as a teenager, eventually living a reclusive life on the family homestead. While she was an extremely prolific poet, and regularly enclosed poems in letters to friends, she was not publicly recognized during her lifetime. She died at the age of 55 in 1886, virtually unknown outside her small community. After her death, her sister Lavinia and other family members discovered forty handbound volumes of her poetry, containing nearly 1,800 poems. When the first volume of her poetry was published in 1890, it was met with wide acclaim. Dickinson is now known as one of the America's greatest poets; both her life story and her impressive body of work continue to provide inspiration to many.
