The Full Text of “'Twas the old—road—through pain—”
1'Twas the old—road—through pain—
2That unfrequented—One—
3With many a turn—and thorn—
4That stops—at Heaven—
5This—was the Town—she passed—
6There—where she—rested—last—
7Then—stepped more fast—
8The little tracks—close prest—
9Then—not so swift—
10Slow—slow—as feet did weary—grow—
11Then—stopped—no other track!
12Wait! Look! Her little Book—
13The leaf—at love—turned back—
14Her very Hat—
15And this worn shoe just fits the track—
16Herself—though—fled!
17Another bed—a short one—
18Women make—tonight—
19In Chambers bright—
20Too out of sight—though—
21For our hoarse Good Night—
22To touch her Head!
The Full Text of “'Twas the old—road—through pain—”
1'Twas the old—road—through pain—
2That unfrequented—One—
3With many a turn—and thorn—
4That stops—at Heaven—
5This—was the Town—she passed—
6There—where she—rested—last—
7Then—stepped more fast—
8The little tracks—close prest—
9Then—not so swift—
10Slow—slow—as feet did weary—grow—
11Then—stopped—no other track!
12Wait! Look! Her little Book—
13The leaf—at love—turned back—
14Her very Hat—
15And this worn shoe just fits the track—
16Herself—though—fled!
17Another bed—a short one—
18Women make—tonight—
19In Chambers bright—
20Too out of sight—though—
21For our hoarse Good Night—
22To touch her Head!
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“'Twas the old—road—through pain—” Introduction
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Emily Dickinson's "'Twas the old—road—through pain—" is a poem about the difficulty of life, the inevitability of death, and the comforts of faith. Using an extended metaphor, the poem's speaker describes one woman's life as a long, arduous journey down a twisty "road" that ends "at Heaven."The speaker points out places where the woman stopped along the way as well as the items she left behind—including a "little Book" that likely refers to the Bible. As the speaker and others mourn the woman's passing, they also know that, in death, she's too far away to hear their teary goodbyes. The thought that she's in a better place is perhaps a balm to her loved ones; similarly, the poem hints that the woman's belief in God's love helped her overcome obstacles on the road to Heaven. Like most of Dickinson's work, the poem was published posthumously; it first appeared in the third series of her collected Poems in 1896.
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“'Twas the old—road—through pain—” Summary
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It was that old path filled with pain—a path not often traveled, filled with twists and thorns, and which leads to Heaven.
Here's the town she walked past. Here is where she last took a break before continuing on with quicker steps, her small footprints close together. Then she began moving less quickly, becoming slower and slower as her feet grew increasingly tired. Finally, she stopped; no more footprints!
Hold on, look here! It's the little book she carried, with a dog-eared page about love. And here's her hat, and this tattered shoe lines right up with the footprints, even though she herself has gone!
A different, smaller bed is being made for her tonight by women in bright rooms. But she's too far away for our sad goodbyes to reach her!
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“'Twas the old—road—through pain—” Themes
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Life and Death
"Twas the old—road—through pain—" compares life to a journey whose destination is, inevitably, death. Everyone follows this same "road," the poem implies, which is far from smooth and moves only in one direction: away from this earthly world.
The poem's extended metaphor charts one woman’s difficult journey through rough terrain, suggesting that life is far from easy. The "road" that this woman traveled along was "unfrequented," perhaps conveying that her life was lonely (and, somewhat cynically, that most people travel the path to Hell rather than to Heaven, where the speaker notes this woman was heading). There were "many a turn" (many unexpected events) as well as "thorn[s]," hinting that this woman's life, like any other, was marked by uncertainty and pain.
Though she started out moving quickly, her steps “close prest” (or close together), she eventually "slow[ed]" as her body grew tired. On the one hand, this image illustrates the reality of aging: as life goes on, people's steps become less "swift" and their "feet" become "weary." On another, less literal, level, this image reflects the fact that people often begin their lives filled with hopes and dreams—and the energy to pursue them—yet become burdened with pain and exhaustion over the years. Yet, eventually, all suffering will end: the woman's feet stopped, the speaker says, at which point there was “no other track”—there were no more footsteps—to follow.
Partway through the poem, the speaker turns away from the woman who died to focus instead on the people and things she left behind. The speaker notes that though the woman's hat and shoe remain, she, herself, is gone for good. The speaker says, "our hoarse Good Night" can't "touch her head"; her soul is no longer part of this world, and those still wandering the road of life can't reach her. Life, the poem insists, is a one-way street.
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Faith, Grief, and the Promise of Heaven
Dickinson's poem presents life as a difficult journey that invariably ends in death. Yet it also argues that this ending can bring with it the ultimate reward: the eternal comfort of "Heaven." Believing in the heavenly afterlife, the poem further suggests, can be a source of strength and comfort for the living.
The poem tells the story of a woman who wandered down the metaphorical "road" of life. This road was tough at times, filled with unexpected turns and sharp "thorns," and it was also "unfrequented." Most people, the poem hints, don't walk a righteous path. For the woman at the heart of the poem, however, life's hardships were essentially just pitstops along the path to something greater. Her road "stop[ped]—at Heaven," and her faith in God seems to have helped her overcome all the obstacles along the way.
Indeed, the speaker mentions coming across the woman's "little Book" after her death, which is likely a reference to the Bible. This book is "turned back" (or dog-eared) "at love," suggesting that the woman re-read passages about "love" to grant her the strength to continue down the road of life until she was delivered somewhere better: the beautiful "Chambers" of the afterlife, where she now rests forevermore.
The woman doesn't need this "Book" anymore because her faith has already done its part: she's being looked after in Heaven, where "Women" in light-filled rooms have prepared a bed for her. The mourners left behind utter a "hoarse Good Night" that they know won't reach her ears. Their throats are thick with emotion, but perhaps picturing their friend in her heavenly resting place provides them with solace. The thought of a comfortable bed in heaven, the poem implies, can soothe the "pain" of life and the grief of loss.
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “'Twas the old—road—through pain—”
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Lines 1-4
'Twas the old—road—through pain—
That unfrequented—One—
With many a turn—and thorn—
That stops—at Heaven—The poem begins by introducing an extended metaphor comparing life to an "old—road." This road passes "through pain," meaning that it's filled with hardship and suffering. It's also "unfrequented," or seldom traveled‚ making it a lonely place to be. The road contains many "turn[s]" and "thorn[s]" as well, reflecting the fact that life can be full of—potentially dangerous—surprises.
There's a reward at the end of this long, arduous road, however: it "stops—at Heaven." It is perhaps "unfrequented," then, because few people can manage to walk a righteous path, one dedicated to God.
These lines are packed with caesuras in the form of dashes. Such dashes are very common in Dickinson's poetry, but she takes them to an extreme here. Nearly every line in the poem includes a caesura, and many have more than one! This creates a choppy, halting rhythm that evokes the great difficulty of walking down an obstacle-filled road.
Also somewhat uncommon for Dickinson, this poem doesn't use a very steady meter or rhyme scheme. The lines are generally iambic (meaning their syllables follow an unstressed-stressed pattern: da-DUM), but there are varying numbers of these iambs per life, and the poet often inserts other types of feet.
In the first line for instance, "old—road" is a spondee: it consists of two stressed beats in a row. This makes the phrase sound firmer and denser, again evoking the difficulty of walking this path. Variations like this keep the poem feeling dynamic and surprising—fitting, considering the uncertainty and difficulty of life.
The poem also uses lots of end rhyme, though many of these rhymes are very slant. In this first stanza, "pain," "One," "thorn," and "Heaven" all "rhyme" due to their shared /n/ consonance, but they don't chime together perfectly. Again, this seems to evoke the very nature of the "road" at hand: it's a tricky path, where it's easy to lose one's footing.
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Lines 5-8
This—was the Town—she passed—
There—where she—rested—last—
Then—stepped more fast—
The little tracks—close prest— -
Lines 9-11
Then—not so swift—
Slow—slow—as feet did weary—grow—
Then—stopped—no other track! -
Lines 12-16
Wait! Look! Her little Book—
The leaf—at love—turned back—
Her very Hat—
And this worn shoe just fits the track—
Herself—though—fled! -
Lines 17-22
Another bed—a short one—
Women make—tonight—
In Chambers bright—
Too out of sight—though—
For our hoarse Good Night—
To touch her Head!
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“'Twas the old—road—through pain—” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Extended Metaphor
The poem is built around an extended metaphor comparing life to an old "road." This road isn't always a smooth one: it passes "through pain" and features "many a turn—and thorn." These turns represent the unexpected twists that life can take, while those thorns represent life's sharp stings. This road is also "unfrequented." Few people walk down this path, the poem implies, even though it "stops—at Heaven."
Through this extended metaphor, the poem suggests that a truly righteous life is rare and that the path to Heaven is not an easy one to follow—which, perhaps, is why so many people choose not to bother with it.
The speaker continues to build on this metaphor in the second stanza, following one woman's journey down this difficult road. They point out the various places the woman stopped, as though these were pitstops on a road trip or pilgrimage:
This—was the Town—she passed—
There—where she—rested—last—The woman wasn't literally trudging through a town or taking naps on the side of the road, of course. These are metaphorical locations, meant to quickly, succinctly tell this woman's life story.
The way the speaker describes the woman's steps reflects the reality of getting older. Her steps were "swift" at first, suggesting the urgency and enthusiasm with which she walked along the road of life. Her "little tracks," or footsteps, were close together.
As time passed, however, her pace slowed. She grew "weary," the poem implies, as life's physical and emotional hurdles began to take their toll. Eventually, she stopped walking altogether, leaving "no other track" for the speaker to follow. In other words, she died, leaving her earthly body—and this road—behind forever.
In the third stanza, the speaker describes the traces of the woman that remain on earth: her "little Book," her "Hat," and her "worn shoe," which "just fits the track" she left behind. The "worn shoe" seems to indicate just how far she traveled to reach her destination, while her book (most likely the Bible) with its dog-eared "leaf—at love—turned back" suggests that she stayed true to her faith in God's abiding love until the end. The mention of these physical objects emphasizes that the woman's soul has disappeared from this world; she doesn't need a hat or shoe anymore, because her "road" has come to an end.
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Repetition
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Alliteration
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Caesura
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Assonance
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"'Twas the old—road—through pain—" Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- 'Twas
- Unfrequented
- Tracks
- Close prest
- Chambers
- Hoarse
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A contraction of "It was."
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “'Twas the old—road—through pain—”
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Form
Somewhat unusually for a Dickinson poem, "'Twas the old—road—through pain—" is made up of four stanzas of differing lengths:
- The first, a quatrain (four-line stanza), introduces the extended metaphor of life as a journey down a difficult "road" that ultimately "stops—at Heaven."
- The second, a septet (seven-line stanza), elaborates on this metaphor, describing the woman's life as a series of steps that started off "swift" but grew slower over time and eventually stopped altogether.
- The third stanza is a quintain (five lines), in which the speaker points out the belongings that the woman left behind when she died.
- The final stanza is a sestet (six lines) that depicts the woman being laid to rest and mourners not being able to "touch" her with their goodbyes.
The poem's idiosyncratic form—its lack of regular stanzas, its mix of meters (more on that under the Meter section of this guide), and its almost overwhelming use of caesura—help to evoke the woman's unique journey down an uncommon path. The poem's form is as unpredictable as the road of life, filled with "many a turn."
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Meter
The poem uses a mix of iambic dimeter, trimeter, and tetrameter. This means that lines generally contain two, four, or six iambs: poetic feet that contain two syllables arranged in an unstressed-stressed rhythm (da-DUM).
Overall, the poem's iambic rhythm creates a steady, plodding forward march that evokes this woman's steps down the "road" of life, while variations add emphasis to certain words.
For example, here are lines 5-8:
This—was | the Town— | she passed—
There—where | she—rest- | ed—last—
Then—stepped | more fast—
The lit- | tle tracks— | close prest—Lines 5 and 6 are both lines of iambic trimeter, but they begin with trochees (stressed-unstressed: DA-dum). These opening stressed beats emphasize the places that the speaker is pointing out.
Line 7 is then a line of iambic dimeter: it contains just two iambs, and the line's brevity evokes the speed with which the woman is walking.
Line 8 returns to iambic trimeter, though the final foot is ambiguous. Readers might scan it as an iamb ("close prest"), but we'd argue it's really a spondee: two stressed beats in a row, here evoking those firm, swift little footprints.
Lines 9-10 continue with the roughly iambic meter:
Then—not | so swift—
Slow—slow— | as feet | did wea- | ry—grow—Here, the movement from dimeter to tetrameter—from a short, swift line to one double the length—mirrors the way that the woman slows down toward the end of her life. The spondee at the beginning of line 10 ("Slow—slow—") helps to emphasize the woman heavily dragging her feet as her exhaustion grows.
The poem's iambic rhythm fills the lines with music and forward momentum. At the same time, the many variations on this meter, like the poem's varied stanza lengths, make things feel less predictable—more like one unique path through life.
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Rhyme Scheme
"'Twas the old—road—through pain—" doesn't follow a steady rhyme scheme, though it does use lots of end rhyme. If one were to map its rhymes, they would look like this:
AAAA BBBBBCD DDDDE AFFCFE
Many of these rhymes are very slant, as is often the case in Dickinson's poetry. For example, the first stanza creates only faint echoes of rhyme through the use of /n/ consonance ("pain," "One," "thorn," and "Heaven"). As a result, the stanza sounds somewhat musical and consistent yet never rigid, stiff, or predictable.
The second stanza then features a slew of rhymes that are nearly, but not quite, as subtle as those in the previous stanza:
- "Passed," "last," and "fast" are full rhymes, while "prest" and "swift" offer only faint sonic echoes ("swift," in particular, might not even register as a true rhyme to readers' ears).
- Line 11 ("grow") doesn't rhyme with any other word in this stanza. It does rhyme with "though" in line 20, but this rhyme is spread so far apart that readers will likely miss it.
- Finally, line 12 ("track") rhymes with the following stanza. This transition from rhyming lines to non-rhyming lines corresponds with the woman's shift from moving quickly and surely through life to slowing down with age. The poem's shift in sounds mirrors the fact that she has come to the end end of her journey.
In stanza 3, things get even more complicated:
- "Book" and "track" create consonance, while "Book" and "back" are an example of pararhyme.
- "Track" and "back" rhyme perfectly, and they share /ah/ assonance with "hat." "Hat" doesn't rhyme with "Book" at all, however. The shift from words sharing consonants to sharing vowel sounds keeps readers on their toes.
- "Fled" doesn't rhyme with any other end words in this stanza at all. Yet, like "grow" in stanza 2, "fled" does find a rhyme much later in the poem: it chimes with the poem's last word, "Head."
Again, there's music here but no predictable pattern. The choppy rhymes perhaps evoke the difficult, twisty nature of life itself.
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“'Twas the old—road—through pain—” Speaker
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The poem's speaker uses a collective voice: they seem to be part of, or speaking on behalf of, a group that knew this woman and is grieving her death.
The speaker begins by describing the woman's journey along "the old—road—through pain," which was filled with twists, turns, and thorns. This road is an extended metaphor for the difficult journey of life, and the speaker acts as a kind of omniscient tour guide for the reader. They point out the "Town" where this woman presumably lived, as well as the last place she "rested." They trace her metaphorical footsteps, noting how her "tracks" appeared heavier and slower as time passed. They also note that the woman's "track" eventually comes to an end, signaling that her journey is over: she has died.
The speaker is not dead, however, and takes stock of the belongings the woman left behind: her "Book" (likely the Bible), "Hat," and "shoe." The mention of these items combines with the reference to "Another bed" to hint that the speaker is part of a group of mourners at a wake or funeral. That is, they're near the woman's body, which remains on her deathbed or in the "bed" of a coffin/grave. The speaker is saying a final, emotional "Good Night" to the woman, knowing all the while that she can't hear it: her soul is already in "Heaven," in "Chambers bright" where other "Women" (angels, perhaps?) prepare her final resting place.
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“'Twas the old—road—through pain—” Setting
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The poem's final stanza hints that this is all taking place at this woman's funeral or beside her deathbed. The speaker, who seems to be part of a group of mourners, points out the woman's "Hat," "Book," and "shoe," all of which she might still be wearing/holding, and also mentions that "Another bed" is being made for her. This implies that the woman's body is currently in a bed, be it her literal bed or the figurative "bed" of a coffin/the grave.
People have gathered to whisper a "hoarse Good Night," but they know it won't "touch her Head." That is, it won't reach the woman, who is in "Chambers bright" that are "out of sight." In short, she's in "Heaven," in her final resting place—a world that's not accessible to the living. (It's also possible that this other "bed" refers to the woman's coffin, which is being prepared for her, and that "out of sight" refers to the woman's body rather than those chambers. Either way, the gist is the same: the woman's soul is no longer on earth.)
The other location in the poem—the "road" of line 1—is a metaphorical setting rather than a literal one. This twisty, thorny, empty road suggests the difficulty of the woman's life. Building on this metaphor, the speaker describes the "Town" the woman once walked through and the "tracks" she left in her wake. Eventually, her tracks disappear altogether, and all that's left are her earthly belongings—her "Book," "Hat," and "shoe"—which she no longer needs.
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Literary and Historical Context of “'Twas the old—road—through pain—”
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Literary Context
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) published almost nothing during her lifetime, and after 1865 she rarely even left her family home in Amherst, Massachusetts. But from within this circumscribed world, she explored the heights and depths of human experience through her groundbreaking, world-changing poetry.
While Dickinson wasn't too publicly involved in the literary world of her time, she was still part of a swell of 19th-century American innovation. Her contemporary Walt Whitman (who became as famous as Dickinson was obscure) was similarly developing an unprecedented and unique poetic voice, and the transcendentalists (like Emerson and Thoreau) shared her deep belief in the spiritual power of nature. Dickinson herself was inspired by English writers like William Wordsworth and Charlotte Brontë, whose works similarly found paths through the everyday world into the sublime, terrifying, and astonishing.
Death was a frequent theme for Dickinson; she wrote about it from every conceivable perspective, from that of a heartbroken mourner to that of the deceased. Some of her most famous poems on the subject include "I heard a Fly buzz—when I died—," "I Felt a Funeral, in my Brain," "As imperceptibly as grief," and "There's been a Death, in the Opposite House."
"'Twas the old—road—through pain—" touches on elements of the Christian tradition—particularly the idea of an eternal afterlife—and the woman's "little Book" is most likely a nod to the Bible, with which Dickinson was intimately familiar. This poem doesn't express the same level of ambiguity and ambivalence as some of her more famous works, however. Instead, it presents relatively straightforward ideas about God, faith, and the afterlife.
Historical Context
Dickinson's most active writing years coincided with one of the most tumultuous times in American history: the Civil War (1861 to 1865). However, Dickinson rarely addressed the political world directly in her poetry, preferring either to write about her immediate surroundings or to take a much wider philosophical perspective.
Dickinson also grew up in a religious community and came of age during the religious revival known as the Second Great Awakening. Dickinson herself was even swept up by this religious movement for a time. Though she ultimately rejected organized religion, her poems remain preoccupied with theological concerns. Many express wonder about the afterlife, speculating on what it's like to meet God—if that's what happens when people die (something Dickinson wasn't sure about).
By the 1860s, Dickinson had also already experienced the deaths of several relatives and friends. Her cousin Sophia Holland and friend Benjamin Franklin Newton had both died young, and their losses affected her deeply.
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More “'Twas the old—road—through pain—” Resources
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External Resources
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A Musical Adaptation of the Poem — Listen to a version of the poem set to music
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A Biography of the Poet — Read about Dickinson's life and the influences that shaped her work in this biography from the Poetry Foundation.
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"In Our Time" Podcast — Listen to experts talk about Dickinson's life and work on the BBC's In Our Time podcast.
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The Drift Called the Infinite — Check out an essay on Dickinson's relationship to death and eternity, which was, in reality, more complex than this poem suggests.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Emily Dickinson
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