After Great Pain A Formal Feeling Comes - Notes #2

	Pain	Senses	Constriction/entrapment	Heaviness
AO1-Quotations to use	“After a great pain a formal feeling comes” “nerves sit ceremonious like tombs” “hour of lead” “yesterday or centuries before” “after”-the great in which he is unable to speak of.	“a great pain” “nerves sit ceremonious like tombs” “stiff heart” “yesterday-or centuries before” “hour of lead” “the feet mechanical go round” “of ground, or air, or ought” “Remember if outlived” “As freezing persons recollect the snow”	“the nerves sit...like tombs” “yesterday or centuries before” “the feet, mechanical, go round”  “like a stone” “this is the hour of lead” “the freezing persons…first chill, then stupor, then the letting go.”	“the nerves sit ceremonious like tombs” “stiff heart” “mechanical go round A wooden way” “quartz contentment, like a stone.” “this is the hour of lead”
Symbolism	The great pain can be the symbolism- there is no “I” in the poem, there is only the presence of pain which is unidentifiable or unnamed giving it a blurred uncertain state in contrast to the “tombs” and “lead” “Quartz” “Stone” which seem to be much more certain and solid. The pain is also shown through the numbness in the poem, she is so consumed in this “pain” that the poems uncomfortable to read, the feeling of NUMBNESS.	The senses themselves are symbolic, they reinforce her inability to express her pain through words (she in unable to write poetry because of this pain) the “nerves ceremonious like tombs” displays the physical embodiment of the pain crushing her body, like the pain of tomb stones crushing her at a funeral. “stiff heart” shows how in death she is still in pain.”The feet mechanical” resemble the tiresome, relentless, pain she feels.	Entrapment can be shown through the physicality of the “tombs” “lead”  “quartz” and “stone” conveying to the audience her construction through the solidity of these objects. Another symbol is time, “yesterday or centuries before” shows her entrapment is eternal and constant “hour of lead”. She is trapped by time itself, and by the pain she is unable to write poetry.	Within this poem you get the physical heaviness like the “tombs” and “lead” show the weight and depth of this poem. These symbolize her feeling of being tied down, unable to move, with the “tombs” sitting on her “stiff heart”
Structure	The Rhyme scheme is in couplets-they go –then return to show the relentless intensity of this “pain”. It is constantly switching from tetrameter, trimeter to pentameter reflecting these outburst of pain she feels. (however could it be said that this pain is a constant feeling of numbness,  in the regular pattern of quatrains)	There is no “I”, the only thing present in the poem is the “formal feeling”. The poem is literally uncomfortable to read-as the rhyme scheme switches from tetrameter  trimeter and pentameter reflecting the none speakers pain.	You could say that her entrapment is clearly shown through the regular quatrain stanza’s in which they are the boundaries in which she has written.  You could also say she is trapped at the end of the poem by the full stop which contradicts the “letting go” “.”	The “d” in “lead” phonetically weighs down the word as you read it.
Other features	“The nerves” “The stiff” are definite articles for this “pain”. “freezing persons” metaphor for  the unchangeable numbness pain she feels. A poem exploring existential despair.	This feeling of numbness is linked to the constant references to being cold or frozen, “stiff heart” “freezing persons” “first chill”. She also references the suffering of Jesus and compares it to herself “was it He that bore?”.

After a Great pain a formal feeling comes