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How did Thomas Wentworth Higginson respond to Emily Dickinson’s poems?

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Emily Dickinson, c. 1847 — Emily Dickinson Poet Emily Dickinson is one of American poetry's most singular and influential voices.

In April 1862, Emily Dickinson sought the critical advice of Thomas Wentworth Higginson after reading his article, "A Letter to a Young Contributor," in The Atlantic Monthly. She sent him four poems, asking if her verse was "alive".1

Higginson maintained a long correspondence with Dickinson, acting as her "preceptor," though he initially felt her poems were so original that they were nearly unpublishable. When he finally visited her in 1870, he recorded a vivid impression of her "plain" features, "childlike" manner, and "loquacious and exhausting brilliance," noting that he was "glad not to live near her".12

Following Dickinson’s death, Higginson collaborated with Mabel Loomis Todd to edit her work for publication. During this process, they "corrected" the poems by inventing titles and regularizing her diction, grammar, meter, and rhyme to make them more conventional for the era.32