In the HarvardX class on Emily Dickinson, we studied this gem. Do you think the poem discusses relativity theory in 1864, before the Albert Einstein publications of relativity theory in 1905 and 1915? And what about a multi-universe theory before Stephen Hawking?
Pain—expands the Time (967)
Pain—expands the Time—
Ages coil within
The minute Circumference
Of a single Brain—
Pain contracts—the Time—
Occupied with Shot
Gamuts of Eternities
Are as they were not—
(1864)
Yes, oddly enough. My son has been studying relativity and black holes and spacetime and how it bends. This week we pulled out some Dickinson poems for a different exercise, and I am surprised to see how she had been contemplating time in the same manner as Einstein, as something not fixed, like a timepiece, but something that is subject to relativistic effect and dilation. “Since then – ‘tis Centuries – and yet / Feels shorter than the Day”.
She also appears to posit that we exist in an Einsteinian state of timelessness, a single existence: “Forever – is composed of Nows – / ‘Tis not a different time – / Except for Infiniteness –/ And Latitude of Home –”
“The separation between past, present, and future is only an illusion, although a convincing one.” -Einstein
Pretty cool.
Hi Patricia, Thanks for posting those quotes! I hadn’t read these. How amazing what she was thinking about states of time this way and I wonder if Einstein was reading her poems as inspiration or for ideas.
Brief but brain wrecking, nice. Thanks for the post