Emily Dickinson Cause Of Death

After two and a half years of ill health, the poet died on May 15, 1886. Her nephew Gib died in October 1883, and she suffered a “nervous prostration” as a result. She had “blackouts” on two subsequent occasions, and she was confined to bed for the seven months leading up to her death.

Researchers believe she died of heart failure caused by severe hypertension because of the losses she suffered, her symptoms included severe headache and nausea mentioned in her letters and her deathbed coma punctuated by raspy and difficult breathing (high blood pressure).

Emily Dickinson was an eccentric American poet who was known for her frequent themes of death and mortality. Despite being a prolific writer, she only had a few poems published during her lifetime. Despite being largely unknown during her lifetime, her poetry which totals nearly 1,800 poems has become a staple of the American literary canon.