Pain is something that tends to evoke an instinctual fear in people, so as Dickinson describes the painful reactions people have, the reader is reminded of this fear. Because it makes reference to death, the strongest of these descriptions is the one referring to the eyes. "The Eyes glaze once- and that is Death-," (line 5) creates a vision of a slow process of death. Not only is pain associated with this but also the process will eventually leads to fatality. Death is also a metaphor, the death of the control. Once the eyes begin to glaze over, physical death could be pending and death of emotional control could also be setting in. Dickinson is interested in this death of control, so the reader is reminded of Dickinson's contrasting views on agony. Dickinson enjoys the fact that people cannot fake the reactions to anguish; therefore their reaction must be true. Because of her isolated lifestyle and the wonderment she had for things both natural and spiritual, she appreciated something that was a known truth. It's intriguing to read such an unconventional view on watching others suffer. .
Another literary device utilized by Dickinson is personification. In the last two lines, "The Beads upon the Forehead/ By homely Anguish strung." (line 7-8) anguish is personified as being able to string. When an author uses personification, human qualities are assigned to something non-human. Personification helps the readers understand anguish because they can easily visualize the act of stringing something. Dickinson utilizes this to create a vision that helps reinforce the fear that people tend to have toward pain and agony. Once Dickinson can connect the reader through personification, the reader gains greater insight and therefore a better understand of Dickinson's fascination of the expression of agony. .
Both imagery and personification are made more effective as literary devices because of the connotation of the words Dickinson choose to use when employing them.