What is the poetic meaning of feeling the agony?

Answer 1

"Feeling the agony" is being inside the conflict of what a person wants to do versus what he knows he must do. It is the classic situation where a person feels the tension of knowing he must surrender to the way a situation really is (and do what is required to deal with it), against what he has wished a situation to be. The moment of realizing that one really has no power to deny the truth: that something more powerful than you is in control. Ultimately, as a result of this experience, one would learn to trust life on a deeper level, to trust that everything is the way it is for a reason (although we may never understand that reasoning). One learns patience and wisdom from surrender to greater forces in the Universe, from acceptance of the limitations in one's life. The poetic meaning of this is the irony that one must suffer conflict (through piercing one's personal illusions) to find the peace that passeth understanding (surrender).