While it is well known that Emily Dickinson had a morbid attachment to death and often wrote on the subject, her last poem, "So Give Me Back to Death" was perhaps the most appropriately titled and themed as it was written on her literal death bed. Some time in the winter of 1885, just a few short months before her death, while Emily lay withering away in bed awaiting what she knew would be her end, she penned her last poem, "So Give Me Back To Death," which is pictured here. Emily's death came after two years of suffering from what was believed to be a chronic kidney disorder named Bright's Disease (now called nephritis), which eventually caused her heart to fail due to high blood pressure in May of 1886 at the age of 55. It is only appropriate then that the last words she wrote paid homage to her lifelong obsession with and inspiration from that which most fear- death.
“Emily Dickinson and Death.” Emily Dickinson Museum, https://www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/emily-dickinson/biography/special-….