PAIN has an element of blank;
It cannot recollect
When it began, or if there 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.
The Mystery of Pain
Summary
The Mystery of Pain is a short Emily Dickinson poem that gives suffering a strange, almost abstract face. In just two stanzas, it describes pain as a blank element that cannot recall its beginning or imagine a day without itself. Time collapses into one endless present, where the past only teaches the mind to expect fresh agonies. It is a quiet, unsettling meditation that lingers long after the last line.
Read Online
