Emily Dickinson's 'After Great Pain, A Formal Feeling Comes'

Diana Valenzuela

Ms. Lanciaux

IB English III

September 16, 2016

“After great pain, a formal feeling comes”

Imagery & Subject matter: In “After great pain, a formal feeling comes”, by Emily Dickinson, the author uses imagery in order to portray the subject matter of the poem. The subject matter being the phases of going through pain, be it physical or mental pain. Dickinson uses imagery in: “After great pain, a formal feeling comes -/ The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs -”(1-2) by writing “Nerves sit ceremoniously, like Tombs-” she is comparing how the person’s nerves almost seem to numb after experiencing pain. Dickinson then writes “The Feet, mechanical, go round” to portray how the person keeps on living as if nothing happened, sort

The purpose being how society expect women to sacrifice their lives for marriage. Dickinson writes: “She rose to his requirement, dropped/ The playthings of her life/ ”To take the honorable work/ Of women and of wife”(1-4), to demonstrate how women sacrifice their goals and aspirations in order to become a wife. It is really interesting how Dickinson uses the word: “playthings”(2) to represent aspirations, it is almost as if that is the way society thinks about women’s goals, as if they are just toys/a childish thing to have. Dickinson also uses a paradox in: “She rose to his requirement, dropped the playthings of her life” (1-2), in the words “rose”(1) and “dropped”(2), to demonstrate how the women gave up HER things to please

The subject matter being the hardships women go through when they are housewives/married. Dickinson writes “these low feet”(1) at the beginning of the poem to describe a person’s feet, but it isn’t until the end of the poem, the reader actually learns that this subject is a “housewife”(12). Knowing that the subject being described is a housewife, makes it much easier to understand the appearance that Dickinson describes. Dickinson writes: “soldered mouth”(2), “cool forehead, hot so often”(5), “listless hair”(6), “adamantine fingers/ Never a thimble more shall wear”(7-8), and “flies”(9), which are all words associated with death. Yet at the end of the poem, Dickinson writes: “Indolent housewife, in daisies lain!”(12), to portray that death is the end of the housewife’s