686 Am J Psychiatry 158:5, May 2001

Reviews and Overviews

Emily Dickinson Revisited:
A Study of Periodicity in Her Work
John F. McDermott, M.D.
Objective: Emily Dickinson, arguably
one of Americas foremost poets, is char-
acterized by critics as able to capture ex-
treme emotional states in her greatest
work. Recent dating of her poems offers
the periodicity of her writing as a behav-
ior that can be examined for patterns of
affective illness that may relate to these
states.
Method: The bulk of Dickinsons work
was written during a clearly defined 8-
year period when she was age 2835. Po-
ems written during that period, 1858
1865, were grouped by year and exam-
ined for annual and seasonal distribution.
Results: Her 8-year period of productiv-
ity was marked by two 4-year phases. The
first shows a seasonal pattern character-
ized by greater creative output in spring
and summer and a lesser output during
the fall and winter. This pattern was inter-
rupted by an emotional crisis that marked
the beginning of the second phase, a 4-
year sustained period of greatly height-
ened productivity and the emergence of a
revolutionary poetic style.
Conclusions: These data, supported by
excerpts from letters to friends during this
period of Dickinsons life, demonstrate
seasonal changes in mood during the first
four years of major productivity, followed
by a sustained elevation of creative en-
ergy, mood, and cognition during the sec-
ond. They suggest, as supported by family
history, a bipolar pattern previously de-
scribed in creative artists.
(Am J Psychiatry 2001; 158:686690)
Emily Dickinson is one of Americas most celebrated
poets, although she was virtually unknown during her life-
time. Since the 1950s, when her collected poems and let-
ters were first published, considerable speculation has fo-
cused on her state of mind (1). An era of psychological
pathologizing of her life has given way to a current pe-
riod of normalizing by Dickinson scholars, e.g., in sug-
gesting that her housebound adult life was a conscious
decision in the service of her work (2, 3). Nevertheless,
Dickinson herself remains largely a mystery, as there are
little or no objective data available to help understand the
extremes of emotion she was able to capture in her ex-
traordinary poetry.
A recent study (4), using Dickinsons collected letters
rather than her poems as an autobiographical source, con-
firms a sudden, spontaneous anxiety attack at age 24, the
self-described symptoms of which clearly meet DSM-IV
criteria for a panic attack, followed by the rapid onset of
agoraphobia during that same year, again described in her
letters. Speculation from this data has suggested ways in
which the specific panic symptoms described in her let-
ters may have been transformed into poetic metaphor.
But this can only partially explain Dickinsons state of
mind. It does not address her special capacity to capture
what has been called by Dickinson critics the depressive
experience and transform it into metaphor, a phenome-
non over which they have puzzled for decades. Consider
the opening and closing verses from one of Emily Dickin-
sons best known poems:
Theres a certain Slant of light,
Winter Afternoons
That oppresses, like the Heft
Of Cathedral Tunes
When it comes, the Landscape listens
Shadowshold their breath
When it goes, tis like the Distance
On the look of Death(5, F320)
Contemporary Dickinson biographer Paula Bennett ob-
served that the reason for this poems popularity does not
lie in technique alone but in our becoming a partner in
what she calls the poets own depression; i.e., the speakers
mood takes over from the light and is generalized to the
entire landscape (6, p. 117). Other Dickinson scholars have
commented on the winter within her, because many of
her best poems skirt the subject of suicide (7).
Perhaps the other half of the puzzle, then, can be sought
in the well-established connection between panic and af-
fective disorder (811). Again, Dickinsons letters offer a
clear clinical picture, one painted by the poet herself (12).
Born in 1830, she described herself during adolescence as
suffering from a fixed melancholy after the death of a
friend (12, L11). Its persistence caused her to withdraw
from school the following year: I left school and did noth-
ing for some time excepting to ride and roam in the fields
(L13). Soon she came to associate what she called her
Am J Psychiatry 158:5, May 2001 687
JOHN F. MCDERMOTT
down-spirited mood (L81) with the season of the year
(L13) and her preoccupation with the march of the sea-
sons with death itself (13).
This early autobiographical picture, in the context of a
several times greater rate of affective disorder in artists
than in the general population (1417), suggests that it
would be reasonable to examine Emily Dickinsons life and
work further for depression and its possible relationship
to her artistic creativity. This study will use the chronology
of Dickinsons poems as a database. It will examine the pe-
riodicity of her work both by year and season, searching
for possible associations between artistic productivity and
changes in mood during the most productive period of her
life.
Method
After her death in 1886, Dickinsons lifetime work, nearly 1,800
poems, undated and in various manuscript states, was discovered
in her bedroom. The originals had remained in her possession, al-
though she had made copies over the years to send to friends. Al-
though selected poems from this find were subsequently edited
and published by friends and family members, the first collected
edition of the whole of her work with an attempt at sequencing
was not published until the 1950s (18). And it was not until 1998
that The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Variorum Edition, edited by
R.W. Franklin (5), established the chronology of the poems with
some precision. Franklin sequenced the poems according to
when they appeared to have been first written, using characteris-
tic and frequent changes in handwriting, spelling, grammar, and
writing materials. The dating was done conservatively, by year, by
season, and, where possible, by month. When a poem was dated
early or late in the year, it was listed as being written in the
first or last 3 months of that year (personal communication, R.W.
Franklin). Poems were then counted and grouped by year and
season by the author. When no season could be assigned or the
time was too broadly identified, e.g., first half or second half of the
year, poems were excluded from seasonal data but included in
annual data.
Results
Figure 1 and Figure 2 represent a seasonal distribution
of the poetry written during the first 4 years of Emily Dick-
insons serious writing career, 18581861 (no more than
one poem was identified as written in any given year be-
fore 1858). Figure 3 is a graphic representation of her 8
most productive years, 18581865, when she was age 28
35 (5).
The first 4-year period, 18581861, is considered the pe-
riod when the flood of her talent is rising (12, p. 332). As
shown in Figure 1, her productivity in 1858 and 1859
formed a distinct seasonal pattern, with summer account-
ing for three times the productivity of fall and winter com-
bined. Figure 2 illustrates a changing pattern. Although
slightly more poems were written in the winter months of
1860 than during any other season that year, during the
spring and summer of 1860 combined, she produced
more poetry than during the combined fall and winter of
1860. The 1861 seasonal pattern was interrupted by an
emotional crisis to be discussed.
As shown in Figure 3, the second 4-year period of inten-
sive writing, 18621865, presents a further major increase
in her productivity. This surge was sustained, except for a
dip in 1864 when Dickinson spent over one-half the year
in Boston for a medical problem, thought to have been an
eye disorder. Her writing during that time was restricted
by her doctor. After another peak in 1865, her productivity
dropped off to a steady handful of poems each year until
her death in 1886.
Discussion
The most productive years of Emily Dickinsons writing
career seem to divide themselves into two 4-year blocks.
The first was marked by a seasonal pattern. Of course, her
preference for summer is well-known. Summer is men-
tioned over five times more than any other season through-
FIGURE 1. Number of Poems Written by Emily Dickinson
per Season During 1859 and 1858
a
One could not be dated by month.
b
Two could not be dated by month.
N
u
m
b
e
r

o
f

P
o
e
m
s
Season
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
January
to March
April
to June
October to
December
July to
September
1859
a
1858
b
FIGURE 2. Number of Poems Written by Emily Dickinson
per Season During 1861 and 1860
a
Twenty-two could not be dated by month.
b
Three could not be dated by month.
N
u
m
b
e
r

o
f

P
o
e
m
s
Season
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
10
15
5
0
January
to March
April
to June
October to
December
July to
September
1861
a
1860
b
688 Am J Psychiatry 158:5, May 2001
EMILY DICKINSON REVISITED
out her collected poems (19). And although the long, cold
New England winters themselves may have influenced her
productivity, the Dickinson house, including the bedroom
where she did much of her writing at night (personal com-
munication, Polly Longsworth, Ph.D.), was well supplied
with wood-burning stoves and whale-oil lamps. Thus, her
decline in productivity during the winter months seems
more a reaction to the season than to the weather or the
lack of daylight by which to work. Wintertime was accom-
panied by thoughts of death. There is no question that
Emily Dickinson suffered painful losses, the deaths of fam-
ily and friends whom she mourned in letter and verse. But
her periods of grief appear prolonged and seasonally
weighted toward the winter months. For example, a No-
vember 1858 letter to a friend stated, I thought perhaps
that you were dead.Who is alive? The woods are dead
(12, L195). Even the end of summer marked the anticipa-
tion of winterand of death as well. A September 1859 let-
ter noted: Indeed, this world is short, and I wish, until I
tremble, to touch the ones I love before the hills are red
are greyare white (L207).
The year 1860 continued with a seasonal pattern of pro-
ductivity but to a lesser extent than during 1858 and 1859.
The following year, 1861, seemed to anticipate the sea-
sonal pattern once again. Indeed, the dreaded onset of
winter was handled humorously in August of that year.
Dickinson wrote: I shall have no winter this yearI
thought it best to omit the season (L235). But suddenly
the seasonal pattern of the previous 3 years was disrupted
with the onset of a severe emotional crisis in the fall of
1861 (to be discussed).
What can we make of the seasonal pattern in Dickin-
sons early work? On one hand, it reflects the uncommon
sensitivity to seasonal fluctuations found in the work of
many artists (16, 20). In Emily Dickinsons case, it is possi-
ble that it may also reflect a recurrence of the melancholia
she described as an adolescent, now marked by a seasonal
pattern, with recurrence during the winter months.
But what could account for the sudden surge in produc-
tivity beginning in 18611862, a surge that overrode the
previous seasonal pattern? In April 1862, Dickinson wrote
her advisor, Thomas Higginson, of a Terrorsince Sep-
tember [1861]I could tell to noneand so I sing, as the
Boy does by the Burying Groundbecause I am afraid
(12, L261) (sing was a word Dickinson used to refer to
writing poetry). There was no further direct reference to
the Terror in her letters, although she received a note of
concern from a clergyman friend that read, I am dis-
tressed beyond measure at your note, received this mo-
mentI can only imagine the affliction which has be-
fallen, or is now befalling you (L248A). The rest of that
year, 1862, seemed a blur to Emily Dickinson, and al-
though she composed 277 poems in 1862 alone, she wrote
a half-humorous but puzzled line to a friend in December:
I dont remember May. Is that the one that stands next to
April? (L245).
A characteristic overlap between spring or autumn cre-
ative peaks and the onset of manic periods has been de-
scribed in many artists (16). Perhaps the crisis Emily Dick-
inson described in 18611862 signaled a switch in polarity
of mood. Such speculation is supported by the fact is that
Dickinsons productivity rose dramatically in 1861 and
1862; i.e., during the very time she was experiencing the
Terror, Dickinson produced a flood of poems. This sec-
ond 4-year period of productivity, 18621865, accounted
for far more poems than any other period in her life. In-
deed, she seemed so overwhelmed by this new, sustained
burst of energy that she completely discounted those ear-
lier (18581861) productive years. In the April 1862 letter
to Higginson referred to previously, she described her ca-
reer as a poet: I made no versebutone or twountil
this winter (12, L261). She seemed to date her own cre-
ativity to the time of the Terror.
The Terror marked the onset of a prolonged surge of
creative energy and the beginning of the most productive
period of her life, 18621865. New ideas followed one an-
other with extraordinary rapidity. Those 4 years account
for over one-half of the almost 1,800 poems written during
her 33-year writing career. The change in mood can be
found in her letters, formerly one of gloom, to one of ela-
tion. There was a cognitive change as well, as she wrote of
her work, My business is to loveMy business is to
sing.(L269).
Critics have long puzzled over the marked alteration in
poetic form in Dickinsons work after 1860. It has been de-
scribed by one of them as the sudden development of sev-
eral simultaneously expanding metaphors, creating an ex-
perience that required a new kind of reading (21). There
had been not just a quantitative change in her writing but
a qualitative one as well. Dickinson herself recognized this
new, expansive creative form. Her almost constant stream
of ideas, combined with a newfound energy, marked a new
creative period. But she also saw it as a kind of fragmenta-
tion in a letter to Higginson: Icannot rule myself, and
FIGURE 3. Number of Poems Written by Emily Dickinson
per Year From 1855 to 1868
N
u
m
b
e
r

o
f

P
o
e
m
s
Year
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
1
8
5
5
1
8
5
6
1
8
5
7
1
8
5
8
1
8
5
9
1
8
6
0
1
8
6
1
1
8
6
2
1
8
6
3
1
8
6
4
1
8
6
5
1
8
6
6
1
8
6
7
1
8
6
8
Am J Psychiatry 158:5, May 2001 689
JOHN F. MCDERMOTT
when I try to organizemy little Force explodesand
leaves me bare and charred (12, L271). For in addition
to the marked changes in mood and cognition, her behav-
ior had changed as well. The meticulous binding of poems
into themes, or fascicles, by hand from 1858 onward had
become disorderly (5). She recognized the process, apolo-
gizing to her preceptor Higginson for the disorganization,
sending him more poems to critique and adding, Are
these more orderly? (12, L271).
Kay Redfield Jamison, in her book Touched With Fire,
listed Emily Dickinson among the artists with probable
major depression or manic depressive illness but offers no
supporting data (16). This study of the periodicity in Dick-
insons writing career offers data suggestive of affective ill-
ness during her productive years. First of all, Dickinson
described herself as suffering from a fixed melancholy in
adolescence, during which she dropped out of school (12,
L11). Her own beloved lexicon, Websters An American
Dictionary of the English Language (22), described melan-
choly, when prolonged, as a disease. It seems possible,
considering recent research studies of community popu-
lations (23) that have identified high recurrence rates of af-
fective illness in adolescents with vulnerabilities such as
female gender and depressive cognitions, that this melan-
choly may have recurred in seasonal form at the beginning
of Dickinsons most productive years. These years divide
in two, the first 4 generally characterized by an increase in
productivity in the summer and a reduced poetic output
and pessimistic mood in the winter. This pattern was in-
terrupted by an emotional crisis that she described as a
Terror, signaling a second 4-year phase of expansive cre-
ativity, a fever to write, and an intensity clearly dating from
the time of the Terror.
Why did Dickinson characterize the onset of this cre-
ative burst as a Terror? Fearfulness has been described as
one way in which artists experience the arousal of creativ-
ity (16). And although the word terror may not typify the
onset of mania or hypomania today, the same biologically
determined process may have been experienced differ-
ently in different historical periods. In any case, the 8-year
productive period described previously is not inconsistent
with the symptom profile of bipolar II affective disorder,
the Terror perhaps signaling a sudden frightening
change in polarity.
Emily Dickinson has long been considered a complex
figure by her biographers, with many contrasting, if not
contradictory, sides to her personality: withdrawn and re-
clusive on one hand; assertive and ebullient on the other.
Another possible explanation is that she may have suf-
fered from a recurrent affective disorder, with the well-
known emotional and cognitive fluctuations that are part
of its course. Such speculation addresses the mystery of
her poetic drive; i.e., critics have wondered why the bulk of
Dickinsons work was produced in a period of a few short
years, with the drive suddenly coming to an end (24).
Emily Dickinsons physician, without knowing it, may
have helped solve the mystery of her mental state some
years later, when Dickinson was 53: The Physician says I
have Nervous Prostration, she wrote a friend. Possibly I
haveI do not know the Names of Sickness (12, L873).
Nervous prostration was a condition that was by then sub-
sumed under the diagnosis of neurasthenia, an illness
characterized by anxiety and depression (25). Emily Dick-
insons Nervous Prostration might have been the end re-
sult not only of her earlier documented panic and agora-
phobia but of a possible bipolar disorder as well. Recent
evidence from genetic research (9, 10) has suggested that
panic may indeed be a bipolar marker. But it was not until
many years later that Kraepelin described manic and de-
pressive mood swings and separated them from dementia
praecox. Thus, Dickinsons physician diagnosed nervous
prostration, then a catchall for symptoms of anxiety and
depression.
Jamison, in her investigation of the overlapping of de-
pressive, manic, and creative states, has found high rates
of bipolar disorder among artists, especially poets (16).
Andreasen (26) found these creative abilities and mood
disorders to aggregate in certain families. What is the evi-
dence of such a pattern in the Dickinson family? There is
some. The behavior of Emily Dickinsons paternal grandfa-
ther, Samuel Fowler Dickinson, the black sheep of the
family, has confounded Dickinson biographers for years. A
founder of Amherst College and an eminent civic leader,
he was described by the president of Amherst College as
one of the most industrious and persevering men that I
ever saw (24, p. 35). But his periods of energy and enthu-
siasm appeared to alternate with depression. First accu-
mulating then losing the family fortune, exiled from Am-
herst to the Midwest, he was remembered by his daughter:
It seems as if his depression of spirits caused his sickness
which terminated his life (24, p. 38). The eminent Dickin-
son biographer Richard Sewall noted this breakdown
and suggested that Squire Fowler exhibited traits that be-
came more extreme in succeeding generations (24, p. 38).
Samuel Fowler Dickinsons own references to his mood
swings can be found in letters before and after his gradua-
tion from Dartmouth College in 1795. Needing only 4
hours sleep at night, he characterized himself as having
burned out my candle and made the clock strike thir-
teen on one hand and at other times complaining of mel-
ancholy and general debility pervading my constitution
on the other (27, MS797301).
Conclusions
The limitations of this study are well recognized. Diag-
nostic impression without examination is conjecture at
best. Furthermore, the sample of poems available may be
incomplete; i.e., it conceivable that others were written
and lost or destroyed and were not included in those
found in Dickinsons room after her death. And although
690 Am J Psychiatry 158:5, May 2001
EMILY DICKINSON REVISITED
the chronology of all Dickinsons poems established by the
recent Franklin Variorum Edition is more precise by time
of year than ever before, it remains an educated judgment.
Nevertheless, to our knowledge, this study is the first
quantitative data-based assessment of Dickinsons work
with use of the periodicity of her poetry writing as a mea-
sure. Its primary purpose was to discover new information
about Emily Dickinson rather than explain her.
If the data presented here offer a new interpretation of
Emily Dickinsons career and a further glimpse into her
pattern of creative productivity, they cannot explain the
phenomenon of her imagination. For if Emily Dickinson
was indeed the victim of the well-known Faustian bargain
between affective illness and creative genius, it was her
courage and imagination that enabled her to rise above
the former and use the latter to transform powerful affects
into metaphor. Her work frames complex emotional ex-
tremes with words that have a life of their own, words that
have moved generations of Americans and others
throughout the world. Perhaps Emily Dickinson had some
insight into the secret of her own creative genius when she
penned the lines beginning
The Brainis wider than the Sky (5, F578)
Received July 26, 2000; revision received Dec. 8, 2000; accepted
Dec. 19, 2000. From the Department of Psychiatry, University of Ha-
waii School of Medicine. Address reprint requests to Dr. McDermott,
P.O. Box 6840, Kamuela, HI 96743; dermott@gte.net (e-mail).
The author thanks Robert Michels, M.D., and David Porter, Ph.D.,
for suggesting this study, R.W. Franklin, Ph.D., for further interpretive
dating of the poetry, and Polly Longsworth, Ph.D., for help with Dick-
insons writing habits.
Poems F320 and F578 reprinted by permission of the publishers
and the Trustees of Amherst College from The Poems of Emily Dickin-
son, Ralph W. Franklin, ed., Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of
Harvard University Press, Copyright 1998 by the President and Fel-
lows of Harvard College. Copyright 1951, 1955, 1979 by the Presi-
dent and Fellows of Harvard College.
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