“I like a look of Agony” Summary

“I like a look of Agony” Themes

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  Pain as Truth

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “I like a look of Agony”

• Lines 1-2

  I like a look of Agony,
  Because I know it's true—

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 3-6

  Men do not sham Convulsion,
  Nor simulate a Throe—
  The Eyes glaze once—and that is Death—
  Impossible to feign

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 7-8

  The Beads upon the Forehead
  By homely Anguish strung.

  

  

  

  

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“I like a look of Agony” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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• Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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• Enjambment

  

  

  

  

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• End-Stopped Line

  

  

  

  

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• Caesura

  

  

  

  

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• Parallelism

  

  

  

  

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“I like a look of Agony” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Sham
• Convulsion
• Simulate
• Throe
• Glaze
• Feign
• Beads
• Homely

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “I like a look of Agony”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“I like a look of Agony” Speaker

“I like a look of Agony” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “I like a look of Agony”

More “I like a look of Agony” Resources

• External Resources

  • Dickinson's Biography — Learn more about Dickinson's life and work via the Poetry Foundation. 

  • Dickinson's Influences — Learn more about Dickinson's poetic influences.

  • Dickinson's Health — Check out this page from the Emily Dickinson Museum's website focusing on the health issues that may have plagued Dickinson and her loved ones throughout her life.

  • Her Own Society — A reading of Dickinson in the context of her literary relationships.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Emily Dickinson

  • A Bird, came down the Walk

  • After great pain, a formal feeling comes –

  • A Light exists in Spring

  • A Murmur in the Trees—to note—

  • A narrow Fellow in the Grass

  • An awful Tempest mashed the air—

  • As imperceptibly as grief

  • A still—Volcano—Life—

  • A Word dropped careless on a Page

  • Because I could not stop for Death —

  • Before I got my eye put out

  • Fame is a fickle food

  • Hope is the thing with feathers

  • I cannot live with You –

  • I cautious, scanned my little life

  • I could bring You Jewels—had I a mind to—

  • I did not reach Thee

  • I died for Beauty—but was scarce

  • I dreaded that first Robin, so

  • I dwell in Possibility –

  • I felt a Funeral, in my Brain

  • If I can stop one heart from breaking

  • I had been hungry, all the Years

  • I have a Bird in spring

  • I heard a Fly buzz - when I died -

  • I like to see it lap the Miles

  • I measure every Grief I meet

  • I’m Nobody! Who are you?

  • I started Early — Took my Dog —

  • I taste a liquor never brewed

  • It was not Death, for I stood up

  • I—Years—had been—from Home—

  • Like Rain it sounded till it curved

  • Much Madness is divinest Sense -

  • My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun

  • Nature is what we see

  • One need not be a Chamber — to be Haunted

  • Publication — is the Auction

  • Safe in their Alabaster Chambers

  • Shipwreck

  • Success is counted sweetest

  • Tell all the truth but tell it slant —

  • The Brain—is wider than the Sky—

  • The Bustle in a House

  • The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants

  • There came a Wind like a Bugle

  • There is no Frigate like a Book

  • There's a certain Slant of light

  • There's been a Death, in the Opposite House

  • The saddest noise, the sweetest noise

  • The Sky is low — the Clouds are mean

  • The Soul has bandaged moments

  • The Soul selects her own Society

  • The Wind – tapped like a tired Man –

  • They shut me up in Prose –

  • This is my letter to the world

  • This World is not Conclusion

  • 'Twas the old—road—through pain—

  • We grow accustomed to the Dark

  • What mystery pervades a well!

  • Whose cheek is this?

  • Wild nights - Wild nights!