A Nearness to Tremendousness

A Nearness to Tremendousness - meaning Summary

Nearness of Suffering and Transcendence

Dickinson contrasts an expansive, almost divine scale of suffering with the small, domestic steadiness of contentment. The poem suggests that “Agony” reaches toward boundlessness and the laws that govern transcendence, while contentment occupies a quiet, localized suburb where affliction cannot take root. Affliction is described as illocal—nomadic or beyond ordinary place—so it intrudes upon but does not settle within everyday serenity. This short poem frames human experience as a tension between overwhelming, metaphysical forces and the limited, sheltering spaces of ordinary life.