Word Gems
exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity
Emily Dickinson
I like a look of Agony (#241)
return to "Poetry" main-page
![](emily.38484.1.jpg)
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
I like a look of Agony,
Because I know it's true—
Men do not sham Convulsion,
Nor simulate, a Throe—
The Eyes glaze once—and that is Death—
Impossible to feign
The Beads upon the Forehead
By homely Anguish strung.
1775 poems
![](dickinson.99487.jpg)
from https://poemanalysis.com/emily-dickinson/i-like-a-look-of-agony/
Agony is something, like death, that can’t be hidden or faked. It is truthful in a way that love and passion are not. When she looks at someone’s face and sees their suffering, she knows it’s real as it’s impossible to simulate the throes of pain. The speaker concludes the poem by speaking about the beads of sweat that may appear on someone’s skin. They are like a necklace that agony itself strung and hung on someone’s body.
|