Birth: Decmber 10, 1830
Death: May 15, 1886
About Myself: I, Emily Dickinson, was born on December 10, 1830 into one of the most admirable families in
Throughout my life my parents have been strong supporters of education and I have greatly benefited from this aspect. At an early age I was educated in classic literature, studying the writings of Virgil and Latin, Mathematics, history, and botany. Though school was not difficult for me, I preferred to be at home. At seventeen I set out to study in South Hadley
In 1862 I answered to a calling for poetry submissions in the Atlantic Monthly. The editor and I began communication and though he tried to correct my work, I would not accept corrections or alterations. In 1864 and 1865 I went to stay a while with my Norcross Cousins in
I was diagnosed, somewhere in the midst of all these deaths, with Brights disease and began secluding myself from the outside world entirely.
Emily Dickinson’s poems were only published by her younger sister Lavinia, after her death on May 15, 1886.
Publish dates:
INSPIRED BY:
Pain Has an Element of Blank.
It cannot recollect
where it began, or if the were
a day when it was not.
It has no future but itself,
Its infinite realms contain
Its past, enlightened to perceive
New periods of pain.
-Emily Dickinson
Pain is a different interpretation for every person. The first line of this poem states that there is no definition for pain, no origination, and no way of telling what sort of pain the future may hold. It is impossible to say whether pain has or has not been present since the beginning of time, but it does state that pain, wherever it originated from, will always remain present. Though one person may not feel pain, another does. Therefore pain is an unbeatable entity, a no-stop legacy. Emily also states how repetitive pain is in her line "It has no future but itself". This statement is true because pain cannot form into anything other than pain, it does not have to ability to change itself. It can reside in a body and then leave, but it cannot become any other feeling. Pain is out of our control very much so because of it is untouchable. "Its infinite realms", we cannot evade pain forever, nor can we destroy something we do not entirely understand. Though one may post-pone pain, it can always return whether in small quantity or large amounts, no living specimen can outlast pain. We cannot defeat pain, it is an infinite occurrence, and Emily states that well in her poem.
As written by: Michelle
Sources Cited:
Merrimen, C.D. “Emily Dickinson”. Online-literature.com. 2006. Jalic Inc. 22 Oct. 2007.
<http://www.online-literature.com/dickinson/>
Picture<http://rogerbourland.com/blog/wp- content/uploads/2006/07/emily_dickinson.jpg>
Scott, Michon. “Edward Hitchcock”. Strangescience.net. 21 Aug. 2005.
The Dinosaur Papers. 29 Oct. 2007. <http://www.strangescience.net/hitch.html>
Page created by: Michelle C.