Suffering is one of those taboo words that people prefer to avoid, perhaps because it is associated with weakness and defeat. Yet, it is the most universal feeling inextricably connected with human existence. Emily Dickinson is among those poets who confronted pain and gave it a new meaning. Living the life of a recluse the poet concentrated on her intensive inner life using her anxieties and personal transcendence as the subject matter of her poems. Translation of her painful experiences into a metaphor resulted in the most vivid and original verse. Recognizing the healing power of poetry Dickinson used it as self-therapy and reached out to all those gripped by pain. In one of her letters she wrote: “My business is to love” and “My business is to sing” (Dickinson, Todd 146).

The poet's biggest achievement as a consoler was to demonstrate the dualistic nature of suffering. She showed that on the one hand pain acts as a dispiriting factor which deprives us of motivation and reduces us to our physical nature, but on the other it can elevate us spiritually and lead to a more profound perception of life. In her exploration of the complexity of pain she emphasizes its central position in life.