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An Analysis of “To Sensibility” Lines 37-40
Yet tho’ her soul must griefs sustain
Which she alone can know;
And feel the keener sense of pain
Which sharpens every woe; (Williams 37-40)
In lines 37-40 of “To Sensibility”, the speaker appeals to the emotions within her. I understood the passage to be an embracing of deep emotional pain. The speaker seems to be motivating herself to partake a painful encounter. She is also aware of the fact that only she knows of the pain and then keep it a secret. The use of the words grief, alone, pain, and sharp are indicative of the speaker’s connection to personal grief. Lines 37-40 serve to further augment the idea within the larger poem of a passionate and emotional individual, one that accepts, embraces, and lives within her own grief and pain.
Through the speaker, lines 37-40 indicate an intersection of grief and loneliness. The relationship between the pain, the grief and the loneliness all appear to be complicated. However, loneliness, as a notion, is presented as deeply personal. Therefore, as the speaker slowly takes the reader through her mind frame, I see a formation of connection that forces one to link their deepest pain or grief with what the speaker describes in the said lines and within the entire poem.
There is a uniqueness that emerges from the way the speaker describes the experiences in the third person. Arguably, one could argue that the pain, grief, loneliness, and sorrow are too great for a person to understand them from a third person view. I therefore see the use of third person as a way to hide some of her pain and to own the entire process through narrating it in a way that hides her direct involvement. Alternatively, this can be seen to be indicative of the speaker’s understanding of pain.
The level of pain that the speaker narrates seems to point towards an individual familiar with finding solace in pain, being alone, and grief. The speaker’s frequent use of these words to appeal to the emotions indicate some level of contentment, familiarity, and happiness that come from embracing pain, grief, sorrow, and loneliness. These elements, although commonly seen as depressive, forge the greatest and strongest of people. While they interrupt social relationships, they force one to confront their fears, dreams, demons, and other storms of life. Essentially, I presume that the entire poem was written after an episode of life that left the speaker broken, yet stronger. Lines 37-40 indicate a need to let the heart bleed, walking the entire journey alone, embracing the pain and outcomes of the process, and in the end bringing an end to distress and sorrow.
The speaker points a number of times to the emotions of life, greatly leaning towards sorrowful words to depict the pain and loneliness that are present in the phase of life described. The speaker is keen to portray the subjective emotional and psychological pain that the described person has gone through when her network of social ties was considerably inadequate either in numbers or quality. She seems to be aware of the emotional toll that such human processes may cause, thus causing one to begin defining happiness from a point of view of the pain and grief around them. In Lines 37-40, similar to the entire poem, the speaker is directly seeking to establish a connect between a person’s pain and how their surrounding remains oblivious of these issues.
While the speaker does not equate the experiences of the described person to despair, she seems to be considering giving up. The entire poem has an eerie feeling around it and Lines 37-40 only preempt the fact that the described individual has gone through a lot, yet must prepare her “soul” for greater grief. The speaker anticipates that the person described is yet to go through another painful experience, predicts a need to go through the pain alone, seek strength in the never-ending pain, and only then can she emerge victorious.
To summarize, the passage described above from lines 37-40 stand out because of the direct confrontation the speaker point regarding pain, grief, and great distress. By using different forms of the word distress, the speaker appeals to the emotions of the audience, forcing one to seek deeper within themselves with every line. The speaker promises that “woe” or great distress and sorrow would be “sharpened” if one is able to bear the weight of the grief, embrace the process individually, and work firmly towards pain. The connection of these lines to the rest of the poem is spot on and easily identifiable. I found the lines to be intriguing because they appealed to my own sense of pain in my life. The imminent intertwine between life and pain and the fact that one has to go through sorrow to achieve something for the soul are the cornerstone of the lines and the larger poem.
