Emily Dickinson : a portrait "concealed" in words

Emily Dickinson was one of the icons of American poetry and precursors of Romanticism in the United States. However, her figure is still shrouded in mystery and surrounded by a halo of conjectures. No one even knows what she looked like in the later years of her life. Her poetry is a study of her specific alienation from living among people and entry into the depths of her own "self " as well as an attempt to find identity in her hermetic world. Unceasing interest in new biographies or literary analyses proves that secrets of the poet from Amherst never stopped capturing the recipients’ imagination. Researchers are trying to find out why she completely withdrew from the world and if she really was so extremely lonely. Therefore, the manner in which the poet’s biography contributed to her works is worth considering. In order to study this relationship, the author analysed the texts devoted to Emily Dickinson of Stanisław Barańczak and Leszek Elektorowicz as well as her own works and letters, which are a remarkably valuable source of knowledge for the purposes of this paper and polemicize with the image of "a lonely spinster". The poet craved attention of other people by sending them numerous poems and remarkably rich, elaborate letters. For the subsequent generations, Dickinson herself shaped the adored image of a lonely ghostly poet. It must be emphasised that she was conscious of her poems which were continuously edited, changed and arranged in volumes. Multiple versions of the same texts are a proof for their literary editing. The poet was also conscious of their uniqueness and of the fact they were difficult to read for both publishers and readers