Pastan, Linda : Migraine

Literature Annotations

Genre	Poem
Keywords	Body Self-Image, Chronic Illness/Chronic Disease, Disability, Disease and Health, Pain, Patient Experience, Suffering
Summary	The poet describes the suffering associated with a migraine headache.
Commentary	“Migraine” is a 24 line poem (8 stanzas of 3 lines each). It is a descriptive portrait of what a migraineur suffers (“Ambushed by / pins and needles of light . . . ”) and would give (“every blessing--these shooting / stars . . . the future . . . ”) for an attack to end. Particularly memorable are the lines “the sanctuary is taken / from within” to describe the sacrilege of the internal assault a migraine represents and the description of longed for respite as “the cotton wool / of the perfected dark.”
Source	An Early Afterlife
Publisher	W. W. Norton
Edition	1995
Place Published	New York
Annotated by	Ratzan, Richard M.
Date of Entry	02/20/96
Last Revised	11/19/09