Introduction
‘After great pain, a formal feeling comes’ is a well acclaimed short poem by American poet, Emily Dickinson. Dickinson lived an isolated and comfortable life in her father’s house. Emily Dickinson is now considered as one of the most noteworthy American poets but there was a time when she was known for her unique prosaic lifestyle. Only a small number of literary works written by Dickinson were published during her lifetime. She wrote hundreds of poems that were discovered after her death. This paper intends to discuss the poem, ‘After great pain, a formal feeling comes,’ one of the most famous literary works of Emily Dickinson and several other related aspects.
The poem, ‘After great pain, a formal feeling comes’
Emily Dickinson has a unique style of writing; she uses short lines and slant rhyme in her writing. Her affection for the nature can be sensed by her works. Emily Dickinson understands human psychology as well as human behavior and does not make efforts to express herself. Thoughts flow automatically into her works and this is the reason why readers find themselves attached to her writing.
Emily Dickinson expresses her thoughts in the form of several symbolic manners. She has her own style of expressing her thoughts, emotions and pain in her poems which is not very easy for everybody to understand. ‘After great pain, a formal feeling comes’, a three stanza poem, is a good example where she has expressed her imagination in a beautiful manner before the readers. The poem is short but has the capacity to stir up the thoughts of people.
The poem has been presented with a number of symbolic metaphors. The poem is very close to real life and also gives a good massage. The poem starts with the portrayal of pain, negativity and darkness but at the end of the poem, it has been portrayed that every pain has to end. Author gives a broader message that the people should never give up their hope and like everything else the darkness also will be gone.
This poem is very easy yet difficult to understand. Since the poem is written by Emily, who is known for her unique and isolated lifestyle, there is no need to say that people may interpret this poem as per their own ideas and attitude towards life. I their positive is positive, they may find it very positive and inspiring but If someone has a negative attitude, this poem may depress him or her. The Author has left it upon the readers to interpret the poem as per their own attitude.
Poetry Analysis
The main theme of this poem seems to be the message of the author that pain is omnipresent. Author suggests this pain as so powerful that it can overpower any individual at any point of time in his or her life. In the first part of the poem, she elucidates how an individual faces the lack of sensation or state of numbness after experiencing a huge amount of pain. Author suggests how an individual feels after spending a long painful time. This numbness indicates the silence which is related to a formal event.
This formal event can be funeral of someone because of the portrayal of ‘tombs’ and ‘ceremonious’. Author divides her body into different fragments like nerves, her breath and heart beat. The Author of this poem says that she never bothered about her body or how it used to work but after today’s suffering and pain she can feel that her heart beat and breath are functioning in a slower manner. Her legs are not working properly and she can not even properly walk.
Here author sounds in a different way also as she seems to be relating the Christ and the pain. She probably indicates about the pain that Christ had to suffer whether before centuries and suggests that pain is not endless and one has to come out one day even after long sufferings. When ‘HE’ and wood is used, it indicates towards the Christ and the author has presented a good example by mentioning the pain of Christ. It helps people in relating themselves to the Christ and they do not repent about the pain that they suffer.
The use of quartz is again a fine emblematic by the author to show the actual situation of such people. Quartz is a dreadfully stiff stone and the author intends to show the stiffness of the situation through the example of quartz stone. Author, through this example, depicts the stiffness of the sufferings and suggests people to not to be afraid of their problems or pains. She suggests that how big the pain or problem is, it has to come to an end and this is the courage of people that should never be broken. On the other hand there are people who may consider the stiffness as a never ending process and give up before time. This portrayal can be elaborated as another instance of death because tombs are also made up by using stones.
Major Themes
The author has used various themes in this poem to express her views, like nature, god, human behavior and the power of thoughts along with poetry.
Human struggle and relationship with god
The author spends great time and efforts in exploring human relationships with God. Various works done by the Dickinson emphasized upon the relationship between human and god. Several poems including the present one by the author elaborates an extended insurgence against god. The author considered god as discourteous and disrespectful towards sufferings and pains of human beings; the god should be more responsive towards people who are in pain. This depicts that the author is religious and believer of god.
Generally writers who believe in god depict their faith and inseparable association with the god through their work. Dickinson does not follow this trend; her work continuously shows her dissatisfaction with the god. The author is not satisfied with the justice of God and believe that praising God for all his justice cannot be the only way to get connected with him. The author challenged the authority of god in all her major works and refused to accept the god’s divine. In her work “After great pain a formal feeling comes”, the writer did not directly described the association with god, however, the author does mention about death and different types of deaths.
The author established a connection with the God when it was mentioned “was it he that bore?” The word that she mentions here is refered to the god. The person who is full of pain and lost his complete sense, questions himself whether it was God or not who bore the cross. The question raised by the author is very abrupt but at the same time is able to generate a feeling of sorrow. A person who is in deep pain asks himself that if crucifixion happened long time back or just a day back. All these questions relate to human pain and crucifixion relates to sufferings of humans.
Strange Human Feelings
The author is a great poet who well described various feelings of human beings. In her poetry, Emily Dickinson tried to portray her excellent self observation power and strange willingness to showcase her own thoughts and feelings. The feelings described by the author are candid, accurate and very well described. It is difficult for other writers to showcase their feelings in similar original manner with full integrity. The author presented a rare collection of complex feelings that are strong, intense and yet delicate. The poem depicts flimsy emotional equilibrium of feelings which resolve seriously on a survivor of deep sorrow.
The plot established by the author for poem generates a sense of funeral; the emotions described by the author are full of pain and sorrow. According to the author after pain a formal feeling comes that is described by the author as a tomb. The author described these feelings as very firm and uncertain. Certain words mentioned by the author carry huge meaning like “Wooden way” can be seen as wooden chest and “like a stone” can be referred to headstone. Emily in the poem does not refer to the human body instead emphasized on body parts like “the stiff heart” and mechanical feet. The author trough all these things tried to convey her original feeling of pain to the readers.
The poem certainly endeavors to correspondent the true experience of feelings that comes after pain. The author portrays her imagination in the poem to establish a connection with the reader. The initial line of the work is a kind of statement and remaining poem is supplementary to that statement. The pain or suffering described by the Emily in her poem is not physical; it is mental suffering that turned brain insensate. The second line of poem “The nerves sit ceremonious like tombs”, described group of individuals who have performed funeral and sitting for formal hush. However, addition of tombs does make some change but the overall message remains same.
The imagination of the author is exemplified by the general value of rigid lifelessness. For example author mentioned that heart as “stiff” and feet that are walking “wooden way”. Such imagination is very necessary in creating a feeling of insensate consciousness that is very explicitly described by the author when she talks about mechanical moment of feet. All lines of the poem are linked with each other in a systematic manner.
The author talks about different parts of the body in a systematic sequence like nerve followed by heart then feet. The author established a connection between quartz and stone when mentioned that “A quartz contentment, like a stone”. The author could have used various other objects to relate with stone but selection of quartz refers to certain meaning. The stone generates an image that is prevented by any cliché and quartz is one of the hardest stones. Quartz refers to crystal stone that is away from any pain.
In the poem the author described formal feeling as a feeling of pleasure or happiness that arrives after pain. This feeling does not generate because of satisfaction or internal happiness but generates because human brains stop responding any further. The Author has portrayed the pain and relief in a very effective manner which is the beauty of this poem. During initial two stanzas the author describes the utter pain and unconscious state of mind and in last stanza describes a formal feeling. The author compares this situation with situation when a person starts freezing; initially he feels the cold but later on his body stopped feeling it because of decline in body temperature and later person dies. Similarly, after sever pain human brain stop responding to the external environment and feel an artificial form of happiness feeling.
Effectiveness of Poetry
Dickinson was very well aware about the latest trends in the country and surroundings. She was also attuned with science theories and religious knowledge which is reflected in her works through the life. Science that provided the theory of evolution denied the presence and existence of God However, Dickinson was a believer of god; she registered the presence of god in the poem. The author learned the effective use of language and the world especially related to the religious domain.
The author successfully creates a real sense or feelings among readers; the readers can imagine the thoughts and ideas of the author. It is very essential for any poet to depict her thoughts through words and generate a real picture in the mind of the reader; Emily was successful in doing so. The poem “After great pain a formal feeling comes” contains various symbols, metaphors but still it is able to convey the idea of poem and reader get easily connected with the poem. The Author has successfully connected herself with the readers through this poem.
Critical analysis of the poem
This poem is a beautiful and meaningful literary work by the Emily Dickinson. The poem has great influence on Emily’s personal life like other literary works are influenced by its creator’s personal life and attitude. Emily has presented this poem in a positive way but some descriptions categorize it as negative rather than positive. Though it is up to the readers to interpret the poem as per their own attitude but the author has portrayed the things in an ambiguous way. The words and metaphors, used in this poem are not that easy to understand for everybody. The poem is a beautiful literary work but the portrayal of this poem is not done in a simple manner which makes it a difficult and boring.
Conclusion
After having observed the above mentioned analysis of the poem, ‘After great pain, a formal feeling comes’, it is best to conclude that the poem and expression of the author are very perfect but it appears a bit embellished. It sounds practical when the author suggests that it is really painful when a loved one dies but at the same time it is hard to agree when she says that individuals can not live a normal life and act as if they are lifeless. People face traumatic situation after someone close to them dies but life goes on and it should be. There are a number of people who have faced several instances and critical situations but instead of falling into a lifeless state, they have countered the situation and stood up to live again and again. Though it is not certain that the author has deliberately or exceedingly portrayed the negativity in this poem but this is what appears from analyzing the poem.
Apart from this aspect, the author seems to be very appropriate and she has managed to portray her feelings and the pain which is one major characteristic of the author. A number of other eminent scholars and critiques also praise Emily for expressive writing style. People find her writing, reading their minds and this is one of the reasons that irrespective of her zero public life she is famously known through her literary works. Emily is not a philosophical writer who writes poems that goes beyond the understanding of the people but people find her very close as her thought provoking and natural writing compels people to read her. Emily Dickinson has successfully managed to portray this complicated issue through a short poem.
Works Cited
Dickinson, Emily. Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. USA: Paw Prints, 2008.
Lundin, Roger. Emily Dickinson and the Art of Belief. Cambridge: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2004.
Manley, Francis. "An Explication of Dickinson's "After Great Pain"." Modern Language Notes (1958): 260-264.
Pollak, Vivian R. "Thirst and Starvation in Emily Dickinson's Poetry." American Literature (1979): 33-49.
