If I can stop one heart from breaking, If I can ease one pain, / Then my life will not have been in vain.

Emily Dickinson wrote this as part of a short lyric poem (commonly titled by its first line) that reflects her recurring preoccupation with suffering, consolation, and the moral value of small acts. Dickinson lived much of her adult life in relative seclusion in Amherst, Massachusetts, and published very little during her lifetime; many poems circulated only in manuscript among family and friends. The poem’s plain, hymnlike diction and conditional “If I can…” structure align with her frequent use of compact moral meditations rather than public declarations. It became widely known through posthumous publication, when editors began printing her poems in collected editions.

The speaker measures a life’s worth not by fame or achievement but by the alleviation of another’s suffering. The repeated conditional clauses (“If I can…”) emphasize modesty and uncertainty: even a single prevented heartbreak or eased pain would be sufficient to redeem existence from “vain”ness. Dickinson’s focus on “one” heart and “one” pain underscores the ethical weight of individual encounters, suggesting that meaning is cumulative and intimate rather than grand or abstract. The poem also implies a quiet theology of service—salvation or justification through compassion—while remaining accessible as a secular statement about empathy as life’s purpose.

If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.