Emily Dickinson d May 15, 1886. She spent most of her life as a kind of recluse, hermit, or "stationary pilgrim" in her family home in Amherst, MA. Only after her death, and the discovery of 1,775 poems, was it clear how she had spent her time. Deceptively simple, they reflected

a complex personal approach to the world. Many addressed her relationship with God--on her own terms, wavering between doubt and faith. With a great eye for nature, she saw the universe in a grain of sand. All things were a harbor opening on the great expanse of eternity.