760.1863.Pain – has an Element of Blank –
ED’s alteratives (in parentheses); LarryB’s comments in [brackets]
Pain – has an Element of Blank –
It cannot recollect
When it begun – Or if there were
A time (Day) when it was not –
It has no Future – but itself –
Its Infinite contain
It’s [Its] Past – enlightened to perceive
New Periods – Of Pain.
An interpretation:
Pain is like an Ocean Wave,
It can’t remember
When it began – or if there were
A time (Day) before its existence –
It has no Future – but itself –
Forever doing
What it has always done,
Perceive new waves – Of Pain.
As this poem implies, in 1863 ED was still stuck in a rut of recurring waves of emotional pain. Relief from Wadsworth’s abandonment seemed impossible, but, if time couldn’t completely heal her emotional wounds, it could at least “Perceive new waves – Of Pain”.
Apparently, by the late 1860s – early 1870s, ED’s feelings for Reverend Wadsworth had calmed, and they resumed correspondence. In summer 1880, Wadsworth made a surprise Sunday afternoon visit to Homestead. ED’s later poems and letters suggest they spent the afternoon in friendly chit-chat. He died in 1882.
Wadsworth’s 1880 visit occurred just as ED’s long friendship with Judge Otis Lord was blossoming into life-affirming romance. Wisely, 39-year-old ED declined Lord’s marriage proposal (L913, late 1880):
“To Otis Lord.
“Dont you know you are happiest while I withhold and not confer – dont you know that “No” is the wildest word we consign to Language? You do, for you know all things –”.
Their warm friendship and correspondence continued until his death in March 1884.
• Cristanne Miller and Domhnall Mitchell. 2024. The Letters of Emily Dickinson. Harvard University Press. P.358-359.
Larry B December 9, 2024 at 2:40 PM
An interpretation:
Pain is like an Ocean Wave,
It can’t remember
When it began – or if there were
A time before its existence –
It has no Future – but itself –
Forever doing
What it has always done,
Receive new waves – Of Pain.
At least Styron’s ‘Darkness Visited’ ends with Dante and Virgil emerging from Hell:
“And so we came forth, and once again beheld the stars.”
Styron, William. Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness (p. 84). Open Road Media. Kindle Edition.