Act 1, Section 1 Summary

Emily, a delicate and sometimes child-like woman, enters with a teapot and introduces herself to the audience. She picks up a pate of cake slices and offers it to the audience by way of introduction. It is black cake, made from her own special recipe. She asks the audience's forgiveness for any fright on her part, as she is not used to strangers. She says that she is fifty-three. She welcomes the audience to Amherst, and says her full name is Emily Elizabeth Dickinson.

Emily explains that her middle name came from her father's sister Elisabeth Currier. Elisabeth, or Aunt Libbie, is a formidable woman. Emily describes her as "the only male relative on the female side." Emily then explains that she no longer uses her middle name since she is a poet. She says that she has had several poems...