Chemeng, there is speculation that a disappointing love affair when she was very young drove her into withdrawing into the life of a recluse at the age of 23. Here's my favorite Dickinson poem, and a url to her literary/bio site (all her work is available there):

My life closed twice before its close [cc]

MY life closed twice before its close--
It yet remains to see
If Immortality unveil
A third event to me

So huge, so hopeless to conceive
As these that twice befell.
Parting is all we know of heaven,
And all we need of hell.

Emily Dickinson (1880's-)


http://www.online-literature.com/dickinson/