Affliction here seems to be less about dramatic pain than about a slow, quiet estrangement from oneself. The poem opens with a body that has become "cautious," and that caution is oddly costly: instead of protecting the speaker, the body "comes to be in the way," like a piece of furniture or an obstacle in a hallway. It's a body that hesitates, holds back, and ends up getting in its own way.
The second stanza sounds like a kind of confession. The speaker says they have "given nothing" and have been only "an acquaintance" to their own "vexed ear." That's a striking phrase: not a close friend or a master, just someone who barely knows the listening, troubled part of themselves. Judging by the imagery, the ear may point to illness or something like ringing or discomfort, though the poem never says so. What comes through is a mood of distance, regret, and quiet irritation, as if the speaker is only now noticing how little attention they paid to themselves.