The Effects of Pain on the Mind and Body Elements of pain and despair are evident in many works of Emily Dickinson, and are present in her poem, ‘After Great Pain, A Formal Feeling Comes-.’ Dickinson’s simple language draws rich meaning from the use of common words. She uses words associated with the body, with nature, with the mind, as well with physical death, to shape and articulate its sensation and significance. She approached her poetry inductively, combining words to arrive at a conclusion that the pattern of the words suggested. Dickinson’s theme of the experience of pain and grief in this poem are developed through her subtle use of such elements of poetry as diction, personification, metaphor, and simile.
In this poem Dickinson brings the reader to a place where connotation and diction provide a foundation for personal thought and insight concerning death, pain and suffering, and despair. Dickson uses the word ‘Stiff’ in her poem to describe the stiffness of the body when someone is in great pain, in shock, or is dead (line 3).
When someone is experiencing pain and grief the movements of the body become very ‘Stiff’ and ‘Wooden’ and it is very hard for someone to move or have any expression at all (3, 7).
When we think of ‘Tombs’ we associate that with darkness, desolation, death and separation (2).
Dickinson uses the words ‘like a stone-‘ and ‘Hour of Lead-‘ to connote the pain and suffering of loss that is associated with the grave or a tombstone (9, 10).
The Essay on Emily Dickinson Poem Nature Death
Emily Dickinson The life of Emily Dickinson seems to be one of simplicity. After all, she only lived in two houses her entire life. Even though her life might have seemed plain, her mind was fully understanding to a multitude of ideas and feelings. In her poetry you can see her dealing with many concepts and how she feels about certain things in her life. A couple themes I found particularly ...
In the last line Dickinson uses the word ‘Chill-‘ to connote the coldness of the body when someone is in despair or when someone is dead (13).
Dickinson uses personification to great effect by giving life like human qualities to the organs in the body. One example of personification is when she says, ‘The nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs-‘ (2).
The nerves are personified, they ‘sit ceremonious’, which means; ‘they are stiff in manner, not warm or relaxed’. Dickinson uses this personification of the nerves to describe to us the physical state of someone that is in great pain or grief. Next we see, ‘The stiff Heart questions was it He, that bore, / And Yesterday, or Centuries before?’ , a personification of the heart (3, 4).
Stiff is another definition for formal, which specifically denotes a lack of feeling.
The heart can no longer tell how much time has elapsed between its present condition and when the great pain occurred. Metaphors and similes are used throughout this poem to give the reader an understanding of the nature of pain itself. When ‘He’ is capitalized in western culture it is a reference to Jesus Christ. When Dickinson says, ‘was it He, that bore, / And Yesterday, or Centuries before?’ , she is comparing the suffering with the pain of the voice of the poem to the pain of Christ (3, 4).
The pain of the sufferer is so great that the voice imagines that it must be like what Christ suffered, and the pain is so immediate for the voice that it must not have been centuries ago, it must have been only yesterday. Another metaphor is seen in, ‘This is the Hour of Lead-‘. In Dickinson’s time coffins were lined with lead. Lead is very heavy, dark, solid and inanimate like a tomb.
It gives us a sense of being pulled down in the ground. The ‘Hour of Lead’ then equates to a ‘formal feeling’ which is, stiff, rigid, cold, and contented because of the absence of awareness and sensation. The final analogy is a simile that compares the feeling of great pain and grief with the feeling of someone freezing to death, ‘As Freezing persons, recollect the Snow- / First-Chill- then Stupor-then letting go-‘ (12, 13).
The Essay on After Great Pain A Formal Feeling Comes
... Dickinson renders the extinction of consciousness by pain in terms of a funeral. By paraphrasing the first stanza, After great pain, a formal feeling comes-- The Nerves ... form, time, and space. Throughout After Great Pain, A Formal Feeling Comes--, Dickinson uses many forms of connotation, ... depiction of despair in After Great Pain, A Formal Feeling Comes-- that Dickinson manifests the state of mind ...
When someone experiences this kind of pain or grief, it is like freezing to death; you are chilled and feel cold because your body temperature is down. It is a physical reaction to the emotional pain that is experienced.
It is through the thematic depiction of pain and despair that Dickinson manifests the state of mind at a loss of presence. She describes the stages undergone by a person who has experienced great pain and suffering, numbness, and a loss of the sense of time. The various parts of the anatomy noted in the poem, such as the nerves, heart, and feet are no longer part of one central being, but are now moving through the acts of a meaningless ceremony. The ‘formal feeling’ that comes after a great pain is actually no pain at all, but the feeling of no feeling. Dickinson, Emily. ‘After Great Pain A Formal Feeling Comes-.’ The Bedford Introduction to Literature.
Ed. Michael Meyer. 5 th ed. Boston: St. Martin’s, 1999. 946..
