Few poets create works that are considered classics for all time. While many poets enjoy an era of popularity their work becomes dated or no longer holds an appeal for the audience that it was meant to capture and in such cases the poet becomes one who was at one time well known and popular. Every once in awhile, however a poet comes along whose very essence is meant to last for all of eternity. Emily Dickinson was such a poet(Aldrich pp 1020). Her reclusive life and her constant fear of dying provided her with the heart and feelings to write poetry that will forever touch the hearts of those who read her work. Dickinson's poems have a timeless nature(Gregg pp 1024).

             in part because they are so fixated on reclusive ness and the act of dying. Human nature is to fear death. Human nature is to sometimes want to lock oneself in a room and not face the world ever again. Dickinson not only did it but she wrote about it as it happened, thereby giving her readers a forever theme to cling to and examine. Dickinson's life created the backdrop for her fear of death. Her apparent obsessive personality provided the focus she used to complete the 1,700 plus poems that were found after she died. .

             WHO SHE WAS.

             Before one can begin to understand the nature of Emily Dickinson's work regarding death and reclusive preference one must have a grasp on the life that she led. .

             Dickinson probably shaped the definition of recluse by her nature and the life that she carved out as she sat in a room and shared the thoughts she was tormented by with her readers. .

             "As her personality defined itself over the years, she shaped the reclusion for which she became famous. Poetry and her talent and creativity refined and confirmed to her, like ongoing feedback, her distinct view of solitude and the universe(Emily Dickinson: Poet and Reclusehttp://www.hermitary.com/articles/dickinson.html).".

             Dickinson was a recluse, so much so that the first time she submitted her work for publication she was told that her ideas were bizarre and that she should wait until she could write things that were more mainstream.