After+great+pain,+a+formal+feeling+comes—

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Emily Dickinson “After great pain, a formal feeling comes—“ (823)

After great pain, a formal feeling comes— The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs— The stiff Heart questions was it He, that bore, And Yesterday, or Centuries before?

The Feet, mechanical, go round— Of Ground, or Air, or Ought— A Wooden way Regardless grown, A Quartz contentment, like a stone—

This is the Hour of Lead— Remembered, if outlived, As Freezing persons, recollect the Snow— First—Chill—then Stupor—then the letting go—

Analysis: I believe that the controlling idea in this poem is that after a great suffering a great pain another feeling comes, which is almost worst at first but eventually gets better. In the first stanza Dickinson is talking about how after something big happens you kind of ask yourself did you really just go through that. I believe that in this stanza she capitalizes He as a way to let the reader know that she is refering to God. In the second stanza when she says "the feet, mechanical, go round...", you take it as the person is just going through the motions and trying to get through the days. Also when she says " a quartz contentment, like a stone...", it's like she is saying that you kind of feel like a stone after everything is said and done. You can't really feel anything. Finally in the last stanza when she says "this is the hour of lead", she is saying that this is the final hour of that terrible feeling and that if you make it through this last hour then everything is going to be okay. At the end of the poem i believe she is talking about the stage's of grief when she says "first- chill- then Stupor- then the letting go-". Even though she is talking about snow you can infer that she is talking about the stages. Emily Dickinson does a ver good job at getting her controlling idea across and helping the reader to better understand the work.