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Pain — has an Element of Blank —

Pain — has an Element of Blank — It cannot recollect

When it began — or if there were

A time when it was not —

It has no Future — but itself —

Its Infinite realms contain

Its Past — enlightened to perceive

New Periods — of Pain.

     

Biography

Emily Dickinson was a 19th-century American poet whose distinctive writing style made her stand out from the other poets in her era. She is known for her notably unconventional writing style that was unique at the time, where she often made use of dashes and unusual capitalization, and frequently used slant rhyme, which is a type of rhyme with words that have similar but not identical sounds. She ignored the typical rules of versification and grammar, making her work brave and completely original. Dickinson was highly educated and was raised in a Calvinist household.

Dickinson’s family was well known in the Massachusetts community where her family. Her grandfather was a trustee of Amherst College, while her father had served in both state and federal Congresses. Although Dickinson herself was more socially active at a younger age, she became more reclusive later in the later years of her life. Scholars believe she was troubled from a young age by the "deepening menace" of death; throughout her lifetime she would suffer tremendous loss of friends and family, while later living through the time of the war that began in 1861 and ended in 1865. She

began to isolate herself in her room on her family’s homestead and did not leave unless it was necessary. She would talk to her visitors from the other side of her door instead of speaking to them face to face. Only a few people who knew her personally and had exchanged written correspondence with her during the last years of her life ever saw her in person. Her writing May have been an outlet for her to express herself verbally rather than socially. Her works reflect this, as they are full of religious imagery and nuance, conversations about death, the ironies of life, her love of nature, and criticisms of societal behaviors.

Dickinson died of heart failure at her home on May 15th, 1886.

Text:

Pain — has an Element of Blank —

It cannot recollect

When it began — or if there were

A time when it was not —

It has no Future — but itself —

Its Infinite realms contain

Its Past — enlightened to perceive

New Periods — of Pain.

     

Glossary:

Pain (-'s), n. [ME < OF peine < L. pœna penalty, punishment.] (webplay: animal,bodies, bowed, childbirth, death, difficult, displeasure, expect, fear, fly, friends, future, gain, grief, heart, inflicted, limb, lose, mind, parts, past, pressure,

 presume, prospect, service, sorrow, suffering, surgery, taking pains to rise, tired, trouble, uneasy, work) Trial; mental difficulty; emotional suffering; spiritual agony.

1. Hurt; discomfort; physical suffering; bodily affliction.
2. Work; labor; toil; exertion; effort.
3. Grief; misery; sorrow; [fig.] mortality; life on earth; a human experience.
4. Offense; insult; pang of regret or sorrow.
5. Ache; heartbreak; [fig.] vein.

Blank: adj. [Fr. blanc, white.] Empty; vacant; void; deserted; barren; without content; devoid of life.

Blank  adv. [see blank, adj. Ineffectually; futilely; uselessly; pointlessly; in vain.

1. Void; emptiness; lack; vacancy; hollow space.
2. Confusion; bewilderment; vacancy; non-understanding.
3. Nothingness; nonexistent realm (-s), n. [OFr < L. rēgālis, regal, royal.] (webplay: dominions, extent, king).

1. Kingdom; empire; domain; dominion; province; ruled territory; land conquered, controlled, and possessed.
2. Monarchy; king; ruler; governing body; [fig.] royalty; nobility.

Region; area; place; district; sphere; world; [fig.] home; usual residence.

1. [Fig.] Earth; mortal existence; earthly possession; power in a mortal sphere.
2. [Fig.] Heaven; mansion on high; place in the Kingdom of God.
3. [Fig.] thing; artifact; physical object; tangible item.

Realm  n. [OFr < L. rēgālis, regal, royal.] (webplay: dominions, extent, king).

1. Kingdom; empire; domain; dominion; province; ruled territory; land conquered, controlled, and possessed.
2. Monarchy; king; ruler; governing body; [fig.] royalty; nobility
3. Region; area; place; district; sphere; world; [fig.] home; usual residence.
4. [Fig.] Earth; mortal existence; earthly possession; power in a mortal sphere.
5. [Fig.] Heaven; mansion on high; place in the Kingdom of God.
6. [Fig.] thing; artifact; physical object; tangible item.

INFINITE, adj. [OFr < L. infīnītus, unbounded.] (webplay: boundless, condescension, end, existence, extent, God, great, large, man, size, space, time)

1. Perpetual; lasting; constant; timeless.
2. All-encompassing; [fig.] of the greatest importance; of the deepest significance.
3. Totally satisfying; completely fulfilling; physically and spiritually healing.
4. Extensive; boundless; has no limit.

Weighty; heavy; engulfing; engrossing; all-absorbing.

1. Inestimable; priceless; immeasurably valuable.
2. Endless; immense; omnipresent; long-lasting.
3. Immortal; eternal; omnipotent.
4. Beyond circumference; [fig.] sublime; unspeakably beautiful; surpassingly brilliant.
5. True; real; actual; divine; heavenly.
6. Deathless; amaranthine; remembered forever after death.
7. Exceedingly great; high in calculation; undeterminable in scope.
8. Deep; intense; profound; immeasurable; incalculable.
9. Completed; absolute; total.

INFINITE, adv. [see infinite, adj.]

1. Completely; beyond reach.
2. Deeply; soundly; profoundly.
3. Eternally; everlastingly; forever; more than mortal.
4. Repeatedly; time after time; over and over again.
5. Immeasurably; much better; in a superior way.
6. Boundlessly; timelessly; without constraints; beyond mortal realms.

INFINITEn. [see infinite, adj.]

1. God; eternal being; boundless individual; omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent Deity.
2. Continuity; endlessness; never-ending state.
3. Eternal immensity; [fig.] immortalEntirety; totality; boundless nature; unlimited existence.

1. Truth; aspects of heaven; ornaments of divinity.
2. Afterlife; hereafter; eternal life; [fig.] result of death

Analysis of the poem: “Pain-has Element of Blank”.  

Pain — has an Element of Blank —Is a poem that reflects and expresses the suffering of mental and physical pain.

The speaker is expressing the feeling of pain where pain makes everything else empty. This poem looks into the dark subject of mental and physical pain in the way that it floods our lives extinguishing everything else.

The poem's first stanza has two connotations . First it refers to the speaker, a person lost in pain, who cannot remember when the pain began because the pain can be separated from the self and so the speaker can't remember when it was whole or without pain. Dickinson reminds us that once in the grip of pain. However, the lines 'It cannot recollect / When it began '' (lines2.3.)also presents pain as a thinking body that denies the speaker the ability to think at all. The impersonal pronoun “it” along with the abolishment of any strength to recall its beginnings calls into question pain’s ability to remember when or how it started. In other words, pain is offered to us as almost human personification, taking over all.

The lines `` When it began — or if there were A time when it was not —” (3.1;3.2-4.1) indicate that they also cannot remember when the suffering started or if there has

ever been a time without it. This is a description of a state of depression  where your mind has lost control and is consumed or immersed in a trance that is fully focused on the pain. The poem continues into a deeper state of depression as stated as follows “It has no Future—but itself —”.(5.1,5.2). This verse vividly illustrates how pain has personified itself and involves the speaker in a downhill emotional state where the future looks obscure, making the person unwilling to want to continue living.The speaker concludes by stating that the realms or power of the pain are infinite and that only more pain is to be expected as is expressed in the verse “It's Past — enlightened to perceive New Periods — of Pain.” (7.1,7.2,8.!,8.2) The pain is all-engulfing, making the victim not want the future because it only sees pain and more pain coming.

Application to Modern Time

Covid-19 has affected us all.

As a result of the pandemic, the mental state of many has deteriorated as is a clear example in NYC  by the increase in suicide and homeless as explain in the Samsha https://www.samhsa.gov/homelessness-programs-resources/grant-programs-services/path-program/immediate-assistance

In the first year of the pandemic, anxiety and depression increased by 25% worldwide according to the world health organization WHO. The increase in suicide, stress, and anxiety can be due to the increase in unprecedented stress caused by the social isolation resulting from the pandemic. Linked to it also not being able to rely on, or get support from loved ones and neither being able to engage in their communities. Due to mandatory lockdown.

Loneliness, fear of infection, suffering, and death of a loved one, have all been cited as  main triggers leading to anxiety and depression. Among essential workers a health worker, as myself exhaustion and extreme demand at one life risk have been major triggers for suicidal thinking.

I was suffering from increased anxiety. Being in the midst of the epicenter of healthcare made me very worried about the well-being of my family due to having daily exposure to the Covid -19 virus.  I remember having frequent panic attacks. With the support of my family and getting vaccinated, I was able to overcome having the frequent daily panic attacks. I could understand being alone in mandatory lockdown  with no one to talk can make panic attacks even worse and even provoke the thoughts of suicide in lonely

individuals. We should make sure to always call or reach out to friends and lonely individuals who might need support.

As I also realize I was not the only one being at home having anxiety about the pandemic and the effects of the day-to-day routine. My daughter expresses her PAIN

through a beautiful poem where she tells what the pandemic took away, but as is her nature she bounces back and relies on our love to overcome her PAIN.

PARTY ON GUN HILL

zanai, grade 7

If you were to walk into my house Any Sunday,

In any week,

On any year,

Before March of 2020, You’d have found a party.

If you were to come anywhere near Gun Hill Road

And Wickham Avenue,

In the Bronx

On a Sunday,

Of any week,

In any year

Before March 2020,

You’d have heard a party.

Laughing, chatting, Spanish music, stove sizzling. Sounds of life happening.

Erica and Kimora would come, ready to party. My cousins had stories to tell, hairstyles to try.

Titi Mayra setting the table,

Titi Michelle baking cupcakes and gossiping,

My mom laughing and smiling with the company, Stuffing and seasoning the pernil,

My dad frying the tostones.

Baby cousin running around, never listening,

My brother and my older cousin,

Sweet to everyone, but teasing me.

And my grandmother, of course.

She moved into our house during Hurricane Maria, Which destroyed Puerto Rico -

But not her.

Grandma with her hair tied up in a scarf, no apron, Cooking the arroz con gandules,

Telling me she’ll fatten me up with love.

And her sister, Tona, who moved with her, Watching action movies all day,

To keep her brain awake despite her disability.

Sundays are quiet now.

Our food isn’t as good without family to share it with, There’s no news to catch up,

Because nothing seems to be happening.

Our house is way too quiet.

The sound of Tona’s action movies feel lonely and sad now, Not part of the fun.

But we are safe, and one day, we will gather again.

A Sunday will soon come, When if you’re walking near Gun Hill Road and

Wickham Avenue,

In the Bronx,

You’ll have found a party.

Zanai, 7th Grade, "Party on Gun Hill"

The way my daughter expressed the pain of losing family dinner is a way to express her pain.

Helpful websites

If you need suicide or mental health-related crisis support, or are worried about someone else, please call or text 1-800-273-8255 or visit the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline’s chat to connect with a trained crisis counselor. You may also call SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357) or TTY: 1-800-487-4889, or use the SAMHSA’s Behavioral Health Treatment Services Locator

Citation

• Wikipedia Emily Dickson“Emily Dickinson.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 19 May 2022, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Dickinson.

• Youtube link phttps://youtu.be/nhCGY32H1eMarty on gun hill
• Mental awareness helps link SAMHSA    “Mental Health Awareness Month.” SAMHSA, https://www.samhsa.gov/programs/mental-health-awareness-month.

• Emily Dickinson Lexicon. B. (n.d.). Retrieved June 5, 2022, from https://edl.byu.edu/lexicon
• projects, C. to W. (2022, June 6). Files. Wikimedia Commons. Retrieved June 13, 2022, from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File