Analysis of Dickinson’s Pain has an Element of Blank

Analysis of Dickinson’s Pain has an Element of Blank

Although cryptic in language and structure, Dickinson gives her work an

instinctually vivid sense of emotion. Her examination of the feeling of

pain focuses in on only a few of the subtler nuances of pain that are

integral parts of the experience. She draws in on an "Element of Blank"

that she introduces in her opening line. In exploring pain, she proposes

that this "blankness" is a self-propagating force that is subject to the

dynamic forces of time, history and perception, but only to an extent.

Her first mention of "Pain" in the first line does not distinguish this

particular emotion as being of a particular brand of pain. She substitutes

no other words for "pain." By suggesting no other words for "pain," she

chooses the most semantically encompassing term for the emotion. She thus

gives her work the responsibility of examining the collective, general

breadth of "pain." Her alternatives offer connotations that color her usage

of "Pain": the sense of loss in "grief" and "mourning" or the sense of pity

in "anguish" and "suffering." She chooses the lexical vagueness of "Pain"

to embrace all these facets of the emotion.

In introducing the "Element of Blank," it becomes the context that she thus

examines pain. The exact context of "Blank" possesses a vagueness that

suggests its own inadequacy of solid definition. Perhaps this sense of

indefinition is the impression that this usage of "Blank" is meant to

inspire. In this context, this "blankness" is suggestive of a quality of

empty unknowingness that is supported by the next few lines: "It cannot

recollect When it begun." This inability to remember raises a major problem

with respect to the nature of "Pain;" namely whether Dickinson is choosing

to personify "Pain" by giving it a human quality like memory, or is in fact

negating the humanity of making it unable to remember. Several lines below,

she suggests that "Pain" does in fact possess some sort of limited sentient

ability in recognizing "Its Past - enlightened to perceive." It is very

possible that it is the "Pain" that is being enlightened or perceiving.

These conscious acts of giving "Pain" some sort of capacity of awareness

personify "Pain" to some extent.

In continuation of "Pain's" inability to remember, She proceeds, "It cannot

recollect When it begun - or if there were A time when it was not.