Pain has an element of blank by Emily Dickinson

Pain has an element of blank

 

Emily Dickinson

 

Pain has an element of blank;

It cannot recollect

When it began, or if there was

A time when it was not.

It has no future but itself,

Its infinite realms contain

Its past, enlightened to perceive

New periods of pain.

 

痛把心掏空；

它不能記得

何時開始， 是否有

它不存在的時刻。 

痛沒有未來，

它無盡的領地包容

它的過去， 喚醒去體味

新一輪的痛。

 

Dickinson is speaking about two aspects of pain, its timelessness and its irresistible dominance. The poem is structured by references to time (the past in lines 1-4; the future, line 5; the past, the present, and the future, lines 6-8).

 

Paraphrase

 

Lines 1-4: Pain is so overwhelming that it blots out our sense of ever having experienced anything but pain; the sufferer remembers the past as having consisted only of pain.

 

Lines 5-8: In the grip of pain, we see only continuing and relentless pain in the future; our lives and identities have become consumed by pain. Our lives, we ourselves, are only pain.

 

Impersonality

 

I paraphrased the poem from the point of view of the person suffering the pain ("we," "our," "sufferer"). Dickinson's poem, however, presents pain impersonally; the poem personifies the pain, so that the experience is presented from pain's view. Not once is the person feeling the pain referred to; not once is or her point of view presented. Dickinson writes from the perspective of pain to make important points about pain.

 

Intense pain so dominates the individual that it displaces everything else in her life, including identity. If all a person is aware of is pain, then in a sense, that person has become the pain. Pain has depersonalized her, i.e., it has taken away her individuality or identity. To express this depersonalizing consequence of pain, Dickinson uses only the impersonal pronouns "it" and "its," and she presents the experience from the point of view of pain. It is pain which "cannot recollect," "has no future," and is "enlightened to perceive." If pain has become the identity of the sufferer, are "it" and the the person suffering pain the same? Could the line "it cannot recollect" also mean, by implication, "the sufferer cannot recollect”?

 

The depersonalization of the sufferer is so complete that she has no other feelings; thus, the poem contains no words which express emotion. Nevertheless, under the chillingly objective surface of the poem, are feelings implied? Do you as the reader feel the sufferer's hopeless resignation or despair?

 

Phrasing

 

The "element of blank" (line 1) describes how pain clears or empties life of other experience. We are aware only of pain, as the word "infinite" (line 6) suggests.

 

"Enlightened" (line 7) is ironic. Enlightenment is insight which enlarges our intellectual or spiritual understanding or enhances our knowledge. The enlightenment which pain brings is the realization that the future holds more and still more pain. Is this an enlightenment we would gladly do without?

 

"New periods of pain" (line 8) seems to contradict the idea of unbroken continuity in lines 1-7, but this is probably not meant literally, unless we assume one "period" to be followed immediately by another "period." Or does this phrase mean that pain succeeds pain, without stopping, just as one period of time succeeds another without interruption. How do you read this line?

 

Sound

 

Line 1 opens with two one-syllable words, both of which are accented. This emphasis opens the poem with a strong assertion.

The repetition of sounds subtly emphasizes meaning and connects significance. This repetition is heard by the ear, even if you are not conscious of the sounds as you read. Note the repetition of a consonant in the following lines: line 1, element, blank; line 2, It cannot recollect' lines 5, 6: future, itself, infinite; lines 7, 8: past, perceive, periods, pain. There is only one exact end-rhyme in this poem: "contain" (line 6) and "pain" (line 8). This fact gives special emphasis to these words and the ideas they convey. Is there any reason why Dickinson might want to emphasize and/or connect these words/meanings? or has she made a mistake?

 

Connection to Other Poems

 

You are probably noticing that the same concerns and even language appear in numerous poems. For example, a basic idea in this poem appears in "I measure every grief I meet"; it restates the idea of timelessness ("I could not tell the date of mine / It feels so old a pain"). She also uses certain words repeatedly, though not necessarily in the same way. In "I measure every grief," she uses "enlighten" to mean being enlightened to a larger pain.