Dickinson's poem, “After great pain” dramatizes for the human reaction to pain. No doubt, her own suffering prompted her to examine that phenomenon. She examined so she could understand, and her poem help us understand our own human predicament:
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 —
Although Dickinson lived in the nineteenth century, her poem, “After great pain,” expresses the same human feelings common to any century. This poem portrays the experience of a person who has suffered severely. The speaker does not identify the cause of the suffering; it could be the death of a friend or the break up of a relationship. The cause is not important, for the purpose of this poem is to dramatize the effect such suffering has on the human body and mind.
In the first two lines, “After great pain, a formal feeling comes / The nerves sit ceremoniously like tombs,” the speaker claims that the nerves are the first part of the body to register the pain. The nerves become stiff, empty, and cold. “Formal” is associated with a particular form, like a wedding, funeral, or military celebration. All of these events require a certain kind of clothing and special procedures. The nerves experience a “formal feeling” because they are not relaxed but feel stiff like formal clothing or events. The phrase “ceremoniously like tombs” further details the formality along with the cold hardness of a place where dead bodies are stored.
The lines “The stiff Heart questions was it He, that bore, / And Yesterday, or Centuries before?” show that time no longer seems clear. The pain has made the passage of time stand still or speed up. The speaker feels uncertain about when she first experienced the pain; it could have happened “yesterday” or hundreds of years ago. The “stiff Heart” is almost dead itself, another example of hardness or formality.
This poem continues with cold, harsh images: “The feet mechanical go round / Of Ground or Air or Ought.” Her feet move mechanically, not willfully, as usual; she is just going through the motions of life, not really feeling what she is doing. When a person is happy or functioning with normal emotions, life seems to flow and events seem to move easily from one to another; life is flexible, not mechanical. But when a person is tragically unhappy, one's will is stifled, making it difficult to carry on daily routines. The speaker is just trying to survive or get through the day.
The final stanza again uses the hard, cold images. The line, “This is the Hour of Lead,” depicts time as a metal that is associated with gray hardness. Then the speaker claims that if a person can outlive such a tragic experience, that person will remember the stages his body and mind went through “As Freezing persons, recollect the Snow — / First — Chill —then Stupor — then the letting go.” These last two lines show the stages the speaker experienced as she struggled to overcome the suffering. First came a period of nonbelief and then near unconsciousness. If the sufferer survives the suffering, the final relief comes, and the relief is in “letting go,” the time when the mind finds that it can finally relax and no longer concentrate on the terrible pain.
Reference:
The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson edited by Thomas H. Johnson
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Books by Linda Sue Grimes:
Singing in the Silence: Poems of Faith
In 1978, I began studying the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda. I still study those teachings and strive to practice what I learn. I think of my writing as an extension and reinforcement of my spiritual studies. I am especially happy when the poems focus on my spiritual journey, as those in this volume do. I want to take sadness and turn it into joy, and I want to take anger and turn it into acceptance. But mostly, I want to acknowledge the beauty and mystery of God's presence in creation.Jiggery Jee's Eden Valley Stories
Hello, my name is Jiggery-Jee. I live in Eden Valley. Eden Valley is located in the very center of the Land of the Imagination. Surrounding Eden Valley are such places as Tulip Grove, Carrot Valley, Bunnyville, Faultner Grove, and Flower Town. We have many residents in Eden Valley who came to the Valley from the surrounding places. They come here because Eden Valley is peaceful. All of the residents of Eden Valley work and play and live in an atmosphere of harmony. The weather is always perfect; the sun shines when we need sun, and the rain rains when we need rain. However, I must warn you that although things really are peaceful and harmonious in Eden Valley, sometimes they do not start out that way; we often have to work to make life peaceful and harmonious._____________________________________________________________________________
