Sexuality in Emily Dickinson's Poetry Kenneth Fisher-Marciano College

When reading the poetry of Emily Dickinson, many people find themselves asking the same question: was Emily Dickinson a lesbian (or at least bisexual)? The answer is not a definite, but there is ample evidence to support the fact that she may have been interested in women. Her poetry is often analyzed from a queer perspective because of her many loving references to specific women in her life. In the two poems we read in class, there are many lines that lead the reader to believe that Dickinson is speaking about her relationships with other women in a romantic manner. Based on the evidence in her own writing, Emily Dickinson was most likely gay or bisexual.

Emily Dickinson's poetry is often untitled, so is sometimes referenced based on the first line of the poem. That being said, the poem "Tell Her – the page I never wrote!" has many lines that are inherently queer in nature. In the poem, she says "her," and the poem itself is unmistakably a love poem. When she says she "left the Verb and the Pronoun – out," she seems to be speaking about the fact that she can't really find the right words for what she's feeling. The pronoun in this case would probably be "she" or "her" and the verb would probably be "love" or even "lust."...