Friday, January 26, 2007

The Significance of 241's Agony


Dickinson











241

I like a look of Agony,
Because I know it's true—
Men do not sham Convulsion,
Nor simulate, a Throe—



The Eyes glaze once—and that is Death—
Impossible to feign
The Beads upon the Forehead
By homely Anguish strung.

- Emily Dickinson




In the first stanza, Dickinson writes about the value of agony, or suffering in general. I don't think it is about actually enjoying seeing suffering on the faces of people but rather that it is valuble because it is an authentic human expression - one that can not be convincingly simulated. This idea is extended in the second stanza. The true look of death cannot be fabricated, especially when the death is hard and filled with pain.


This is the poem I always return to whenever I look at Dickinson. I am facinated by it, because it at first seems only a macabre little poem. Then you think about it, because in the 30 seconds it has taken you to read it, it has found a way seep into your mind. That is pretty powerful for a poem with only eight lines!

Knowing more about Emily Dickinson's life, it has become even more powerful and curious. She lead a solitary life - that is what they say, but then, where do these deep observations about life come from? Returning to the idea in the poem - that people are filled with fabrications and masks, disguising their feelings and thoughts from the world, and that there are few exceptions to this; agony and death. How striking is it, that a solitary woman, sitting in her room and peering out at the same landscape day after day, probably at birds and squirrel and trees, articulates this solemn and dark observation of life, and more than that, of human nature. It just knocks me flat, it is phenomenal.



Conversely, another conclusion that the analysis of 241's themes and comparison to the known experiences of Dickinson's life could lead to is that her life just could not have been as solitary as it is presented or thought to have been. Otherwise, would we even need to interact with each other if we could all possibly come up with the same observations without that experience or interaction? It sure takes the wind out of "write what you know."


1 comment:

Rudy Wellsand said...

I like your Dec. 1st, 06 comment about Lincoln's "...determined to see the right as God gives him..."

Towards that end...

DID YOU KNOW THAT YOU CAN ACTUALLY READ "CODES" RIGHT OUT OF YOUR OWN BIBLE, that CONTROLS your Destiny?

See the "Chosen"Code and "Color"Code; VISIT: http://quadcode.blogspot.com !

Save or Print it to study.

HAVE A MUCH MORE INSPIRING DAY!