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

After Great Pain A Formal Feeling Comes - Example Essay #3

“This is the Hour of Lead”

Discuss the ways in which Dickinson presents intense emotion in “After great pain, a formal feeling comes”

Throughout Dickinson’s collection of poems we see how she is constantly feeling intense emotions, where this is intense fear, like in “I heard a fly buzz,” in which we see how her fear of the fly is all consuming, which is reflected in the structure of the poem. We then see her intense joy and sense of belonging in, “My life had stood a loaded gun,” In which we see how she feels a sense of satisfaction in the knowing that she is protecting the gentleman in the poem, but the poem in which we most clearly see her over whelming emotions is in “After a great pain a formal feeling comes--“ In this particular poem we see how she feels many different emotions, which include her fear of the recurring pain within her life, which takes form in this poem as a headache. We see how she is terrified of this pain and how her life is almost like a merry-go-round that she is stuck on, and every time she passes the pain it will only be a matter of time before it comes again, and the only way for her to break this vicious cycle is death.

The central cycle of “After great pain, a formal feeling comes” is that of the intense pain Dickinson is feeling and how she will never be able to escape the pain, as she has the inability to die and so is trapped forever on the merry-go-round that is her life. “The feet, mechanical, go round,” this shows how the pain that she is experiencing is never ending, just as one section of the pain ends, and other is just insight and she will again feel the intense pain. We see how she wants to get off the “wooden way” that is her life, but she is unable, as she cannot die. We also see how she describes herself as separate from her, “The stiff Heart”, we see how her heart is unable to love anything, her heart is cold and stiff and in turn means that she is cold and stiff with the inability to love another. This could also, due to the non possessive language, be an indication that she has no control over her body, as if she is just the mind within the body that she is trapped in that is controlling her, and forcing her to continue on with her life. This again shown in “My life stood- a loaded gun” in which we see she takes the form of a gun and her “owner” is the only one that has the ability to take her out of the corner and use her. Even though in this poem we see how she is over joyed that she has the ability to protect and be used by the man, we can still see that she has no real control over her life and in turn has to be control for her to reach her full potential in life.

We see how the intense emotion of fear that she is feeling is reflected in the structure of her poem. We see how there is the general break down of standard English, an indication that the fear is impairing her ability to think straight and in correct English, “The stiff Heart” It is also clear in the words in which she uses in the second stanza, that she is in great pain, this is shown in words such as, “ought”, and “grown” which are words that have the “ow” like sound, which is again an expression of her pain and the constant discomfort that the headache is bringing to her. The use of iambic tetra and trimeter, gives the poem a lost quality as if there is something missing from the poem, as there is something missing from her life, but it could also be a indication that seeing as she has the inability to control her body and indeed her own life, that she is trying to exert power and take control over the only thing that she can, the structure, which would give an explanation for the ridged and structure of the poem. The use of enjambment in stanza three, “This is the hour of lead/ Remembered if outlived,” the lack of punctuation causes the word “lead” to become elongated and gives it a heavy quality as if it is weighing down the line. (Link back to other poem)  

It is also clear at many points during this poem that Dickinson has a fear of being trapped, “A quartz contentment, like a stone,” which gives the image of her effectively being a robot or the tin man, she is trapped by a hard exterior and she is non organic. This also reiterates her inability to die, as her mechanical existence will never be able to come to a close, she will never cease to exist. One of the other ways in which we see that Dickinson is in pain is in the way that she separates herself from the rest of her body, “The stiff Heart” Even though it is her heart that she is discussing, we see how there is a degree of separation, which could be an indication that she is trying to separate herself, her mind and her soul, away from the body that is having the pain inflicted upon it. This is also shown in the second line, “The nerves sit ceremonious like tombs;” in which we see again how she is watching her own body from afar.  We again see the reoccurring image of Dickinson’s fear of her inability to die in the line, “Remembered if outlived,” we see how she does not want to outlive this, she does not want to outlive the pain, she wants to die so that she will never have to experience the pain again, she does not want to survive pain that she describes as being similar to the pain that Jesus bore, “was it He that bore?” 

After Great Pain A Formal Feeling Comes - Example Essay #2

“This is the Hour of Lead”

Discuss the ways in which Dickinson presents intense emotion in “After great pain, a formal feeling comes!”

Without reserve, Dickinson’s poems are submerged in the depths of intense emotion – from the profound depression  “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain” to the vulnerability that derives from entrapment in ‘a jar’, she has invariably expressed her desperation for “Death.” Intense emotions are recurring motifs within “I heard a Fly buzz – when I died-“, “Because I could not stop for Death” and “My life had stood – a Loaded Gun”. However, it is in “After great pain a formal feeling comes” where intense emotions are prominently infused within the poem – it is the depiction of an essentially paradoxical state of mind in which one is alive but yet numb to life, both a living organism and a frozen form.

Were the “great pain” at the beginning of the poem to be considered as a means for Dickinson to present the torment she is experiencing, assuredly its inclusion of striking imageries throughout the poem would be more conspicuous. These imageries intensify the atmosphere of tremendous despondency, which is, unequivocally, found in most of her poems. The choice of word “after” implies to the readers how the poet retrieves her “formal feeling” after the ceaseless anguish; nevertheless, there is the ambiguity for the existence of “formal feeling” – it could be the delusion that is induced by abrupt demise of the previous perpetual pain. The metaphorical depiction of “nerves” as “tombs” constitutes an atmosphere of formality, as if her life is under scrutiny, even upon death. The use of the adjective, “ceremonious” connotes the idea of how every part of her, inclusive of the “nerves”, are expected to live under societal expectations; the helplessness and agony demonstrated within highlights the frustration that the society’s restraint has exerted upon her. In other way, there is also a subtle implication of how Dickinson employs the simile to signify a certain extent of self-defence. The continual agony has compelled her to alienate herself from the society and being reluctant to express any emotion as a result. Although the poem is presented in such a lack of emotions and insensibility, without reserve, the preceding intense distress that the poet has endured would be the chief determinant. Such self-estrangement and desensitisation in sentiment are accentuated through the imageries of “the stiff heart”, “the mechanical feet” and the “ stone-like quartz”, which highlight the numbness of mental and spiritual detachment. Her paradoxical mental state is revealed by the contradictive description of the “stiff heart” being able to “question”, the personification of “quartz” with “contentment” and in addition, the “mechanical feet” which epitomises the disengagement between her mind and body. These imageries are characterized by the possession of a common quality, the quality of “stiff” lifelessness; the insistence on this type of imagery is substantial in confirming the sense of numbed consciousness which is made more explicit by the statement that the feet move “mechanical(ly)” and are "regardless" of where they go. Compatibly, in my ‘My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun –“, Dickinson has dehumanised herself into a mechanical weapon, which beholds the “power to kill”, but  “without—the power to die—“, which reinforces the idea that the defence mechanism within our body allows us to carry on daily activities without conscious effort.

Within the poem, the lines are bound together, not only by the incessant reference of the imagery to the impact of melancholy, but also the fact that the poet is stating in series what happens to parts of the body: from “nerves” to “heart” to “feet”. Instead of the iambic tetrameter that is usually employed within her poem, Dickinson judiciously applies the iambic pentameter to embody the constant headache she is enduring, and thereby, hinders her from constructing proper sentence structures.  The lingering of “great pain” within herself has lead to such suppression on her emotions that the act of restraining her speech is a manifestation of confining one’s own lifestyle.  Ironically, the unconventional composition of rhyming couplets – “comes”, “tombs”, “bore”, “before” allude to the fact that the ability of self-constraint within Dickinson has been disparaged to such severity that which only agony could repress her recalcitrance. Opposing this use of rhyming patterns, in “It was not death, for I stood up”, the use of pararhyme as “down”, “noon” epitomises the disharmony in the world that which she is entrapped within, whereas “seen” and “mine” serve as a pair of regular rhyme insinuating that the solidity of rhyme is to be attained once the poet is undergoing the symbolic joy of “Death”. The prolonged stanza in the middle evinces a sense of ponderosity that is provoked by the burden of “stone” acting upon the line; the elongation in this stanza denotes the poet’s sombre mentality invigorating the faltering of speech. Moreover, the adoption of assonance with ‘ought’, ‘stone’ mimic the resonance one would predominantly affiliate with the sheer intensity of pain. Throughout the poem, the disposition of hyphenation symbolises the stuttering tone of speech and the entrapment of sensibility so as to evade from further affliction. At the end of the poem, the poet employs the simile of hypothermia to depict the stages of one’s combat with depression; “Chill” precedes the poem, whereas the "Stupor--" preoccupies it; subsequently "the letting go--" exists on the far side of its ending.

Should the deification of ‘Heart’ resemble the anamorphic state of her rationality, incontestably, the sense of detachment that is entailed within would be considered more salient. Such rupture is reiterated through the metaphorical link between the heart and “quartz”, suggesting the inorganic facet of the poet, in which no cessation can be detected, but only with the recurrent forthcoming of suffering. Reinstating this unremitting experience, Dickinson illustrates the circular movement of “the feet” “going round” and thereby typifying the lack of control in her life, even upon the notion of time. The poet’s mentality is immersed in such paralysis that the disparity between “yesterday” and “centuries” is obsolete to her. Similarly, in ‘Because I could not stop for Death”, the loss of sense of time is presented as well, yet, the difference is that the loss of rationality is caused due to the relish she experiences with “Death” - “Since then ‘tis centuries, and yet each/ Feels shorter than the day” would be the prime manifestation for this. With the employment of the definite article – “The” in coalescence with “nerves”, “heart” and “feet”, accentuate the sense of severance that which the poet holds from her organs. Correspondingly, in “I heard a Fly buzz - when I died”, “The Eyes” are deified to demonstrate a certain extent of emotional detachment; not only does it show the poet’s intimidation from people’s judgement but also her ironic capacity to affiliate more with what is objectified than people. Such apathy towards life is revealed through “ought”; she is engrossed by the omnipresent pain in which the deception of being condemned to the realms of the inferno is engendered.  “This is the hour of lead” – without question, with the symbolic imagery of “lead” being poisonous and heavy, the poet is not only highlighting her headache and its aftermath, but also emphasising the existing era that transcends the norm. The ‘chill’ that which precedes the ‘letting go’ but disconnected by the ‘stupor’ standing in the midst of such a current state of liminality, would seek to allow one to infer correlation with the reference of hypothermia from the simile ‘as freezing persons recollect the snow’ – such equates the emotionless notion of death to that of surrendering to reality.

After all, the desensitisation is nothing but merely a veil “to justify despair”.

After Great Pain A Formal Feeling Comes - Example Essay #1

“The feet, mechanical, go round”

How does Dickinson display a lack of freedom?

Throughout Dickinson’s poems we can see the recurring motif of entrapment and her lack of freedom, an example of this would be in ‘What mystery pervades a well’, in which we see the entrapment of the yonic water, by the phallic well. It is also seen in certain lines such as, ‘shaven a fitted to a frame’, in which we see how parts of her soul have been shaven away so that she can be what society wants of her, and so that she is respectable so people can watch and judge her. However the image of her lack of freedom is most clearly shown in ‘After great pain a formal feeling comes’, in which the reader see how the speaker as almost stuck on a merry-go-round, symbolic of her life, a never ending ride that she is desperate to get off of, the only escape being death.

One of the techniques that Dickinson uses to illustrate her lack of freedom is in the separation of various body parts, an example being in stanza one where we see how she refers to her heart as being, ‘The stiff Heart’. An indication that her heart is unable to love due to the fact that it is so cold, and lifeless, also due to the fact that it is identified as being separate from her we see how she has no control over it, again showing her lack of freedom and power even over her own life.  Also the way in which she is separate from her heart could also be an indication of how she has the inability to love another person and so therefore her lack of love does not allow her to interact with others around her, so she loses freedom because she cannot interact with others. We also see the separation of her body parts later on in the poem on the line, ‘The feet, mechanical, go round’. This again is an indication of how her body parts are not her own, we see how they are the ones that are in control and are forcing her to follow a path that she clearly does not want to be on. This image of the feet as mechanical also could be related to almost like a wind-up toy, they themselves really have no idea where they are going, so she is being lead to pain for no really reason, similar in ‘I heard a fly buzz’ where she is being lead to pain even though the fly itself does not really feel she needs to go to hell, the fly is referred to as ‘stumbling, between the light and me,’ a hesitant movement with no real motive behind it.

The image of her life as a ‘mechanical’ also gives the reader the image of her life as almost like a merry-go-round, she is on a continuous cycle where, as soon as one pain leaves her she knows that it is only a matter of time before the next pain comes along. This again shows how she has not control over her life, she is unable to move from the cyclical nature of her life, and so therefore must endure the pain repeatedly. This again is a reflection of her lack of power and freedom she is unable to get of the ride that is her life; she is unable to die so that she no longer endures the pain.  We also see the image later on in the poem of her being a mechanical being, ‘A quarts contentment, like a stone’. This gives the image of her as effectively a robot, a tin man, who is again unable to have any really control over her body. We also get the sense that there is someone above her controlling her every move, to make sure that she is a respectable member of the society in which she is forced to live in. We also see how she is a not organic substance, again reflecting her ‘stiff Heart’ and there is no end to the mechanical existence that she is currently livening. The image of her lack of freedom due to the her inability to die is also shown in ‘The last night that she lived’, in this poem, as well as seeing the small amount of sadness at the fact that her friend has passed, we see the large amounts of jealousy that Dickinson feels, as she is the one that wants to die, but is completely unable due to her lack of freedom to do as she wishes with her life.

The structure of the poem also reflects her lack of freedom, an example of this is the use of iambic tetra and trimeter. This strict structure reflects how she is even contained by the verses of her poetry, and also shows how she has a lack of freedom to express herself fully and be free in her writing. The way in which it is written is so regimented that she is unable, even when she is trying to express herself, to fully be free from the rules and images that society have made for her. Also we can see in her choice of words that she again has a lack of freedom, an example of this would be ‘Remembered if outlived’ we see how she longs not to survive this, she wants to break free from the merry-go-round that is her life but she is unable to due to her lack of freedom and control over her own life.  We can also see how she refers to the pain that she feels as something that should kill you, there is a large chance that you would die while experiencing it, this again shows how she feels that her pain is more that any person has felt before, how the pain that she feels should have killed her and all of this should be over, but due to the fact that she cannot die she must endure it over and over again. The use of enjambment also plays a big part in ensuring that the reader can fully see how elongated and painful her life is, ‘go round/ A wooden way’. This shows how the wooden way has been long and is never ending, shown by the unbroken sentence.

Dickinson also uses religious images to illustrate how she is trapped, we see in stanza one how she refers to the pain that she feels as equal to the pain that ‘He that bore?’ This image connects that pain she feels to the pain that Jesus felt on the cross, reflecting how, similar to Jesus, she is unable to get down of her own accord, her life is in the hands of people around her, and she has lost all control. This also gives the image of how people are willing to stand and watch her suffering, and therefore allow her suffering to continue.

After Great Pain A Formal Feeling Comes - Essay Plan

‘After Great Pain a formal feeling comes’

Pain/ Entrapment/ Hope and Hopelessness/ Time/ Freedom

Introduction

-          The ‘Funeral’ motif in I felt a Funeral, in my Brain conveys the entrapment, suggesting that she is emotionally dead and has surrendered to the lack of freedom

-          The last night that she lived where she expresses the pain of being trapped in the world that is ‘awful’ to her.  She sees being ‘dead’ as a way to escape from the pain

-          ‘Despair’ in It was not death, for I stood up that shows the image of her drifting away from hope / ‘fitted into a frame’: trapped by society

Central Symbol

Pain/ Entrapment/Hopeless

-          (See other sheet)

-          Dickinson uses a funeral motif to express her pain.  She compares ‘nerves ’to ‘tombs’, indicating the idea of emotional death

-          The ‘nerves sit ceremonious like tombs’ – funeral motif

-          They are like mourners in the funeral. The word ‘ceremonious’ suggests a sense of numbness after pain.  This is rather depressing as the visitors of her funeral seems to be just observing and question rather than feeling

-          The nerves that are supposed to be transmitters of feelings are turned into stone sarcophagi

-          Emphasising the stiffness of feelings

-          ‘Lead’ – a common soft and heavy metal as a metaphor for oppression

-          It intensifies the heaviness and solidity in the poem as referenced in ‘stone’

-          Signifies her lack of emotion

Time

-          Time is used as a symbol that gives her pain

-          The speaker compares her ‘heart’ to ‘a Quartz contentment’.  Quartz is a crystal used to make watches.  The image in the poem could suggests that the drained, unresponsive state being described has been distilled or crystallised from the anguish from earlier grief, ‘a formal feeling’ after the ‘pain’

-          This may be indicating that time is the reason for her entrapment.  It is a trap that will not release her

-          The speaker compares time to her entrapment – that they are both unending

-          She maybe suggesting that the entrapment is ‘mechanical’ like a watch – time ‘[goes] round’ and is continuous, there is no end to it.

-          Once her pain is ‘outlived’, it will come back again – like a viscous cycle

In Because I could not stop for death, time is also a significant indicator of the speaker’s feeling.  She claims that ‘eternity’ in death ‘feels shorter than the day’ she last lived.  This juxtaposition of time implies how awful she thinks life is to her that one day in live feels longer than ‘centuries’ buried in her grave

Structure

-          (See other sheet)

-          First stanza: Iambic beat and rhyming couplets

o   Enhance the portrayal of the pain: it is very intense

o   Adds onto the adjective ‘stiff’: the rhythm seems very frigid, suggesting that she is stuck and has frozen in place.

o   ‘The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs-‘: the nerves died and so she is forbidden to create any emotional attachment to the stanza

-          Middle stanza: begins and ends with iambic tetrameter but there are five lines

o   Breaking the sense of regularity sustained in the first stanza

o   Reflecting the severity of the pain.  It gives a heavy feeling that eventually extends the line

o   This also emphases the idea of endlessness of time that ‘[goes] round’: the viscous cycle of pain and sufferings

This contrasts with the idea of  ‘floorless’ in What mystery pervades a well that conveys a sense of utter freedom.  It suggests that there is no end to their world.  The enjambement of the line emphasises the perfection: it seems like floorlessness elongates the line.  The ‘sedge’, instead of being oppressed by a continuous pain, are free and limit are beyond reach.  

Technique

-          Is freedom possible?

-          In many of Dickinson’s poems, she seems to be suggesting that death is the only way to freedom – but is it actually possible? Can she escape from time?

-          No

o   She includes time indicators like ‘yesterday’ and ‘or centuries before’

o   Signaled by the capital H in ‘He’, the two phrases are questioning the time when Christ bore the suffering on the cross for man’s sins

o   This is indicating a loss of a sense of time.  It could be a reflection of how long the pain that the speaker is suffering has been going on

o   Perhaps it has been there for a long time the speaker is uncertain.  If it has been there and no solution is yet to be found, this may be suggesting that hope may not be possible

o   Moreover, her conclusion is directed to despair and surrender

o   ‘chill’, ‘stupor’ and ‘letting go’

o   She mirrors the stages experienced by suffers of hypothermia

o   The pain of the cold, the dulling of senses and the final loss of consciousness

o   Describing an emotional state in powerful physical terms:

o   Comparing the emotional state to the gradual freezing of a body, shows that she gives up in the fight for freedom

Yes – In This life is not conclusion where she hopes for the after life that the ‘soul’ lives on.  She sees that as an escape from the entrapment in her current life – ‘tooth’ symbolising the constant pain that make her suffer in life, which cannot be healed.  She assures herself that with this only solution:  ‘Faith slips – and laughs, and rallies –‘

After Great Pain A Formal Feeling Comes - Notes #1

AFTER GREAT PAIN, A FORMAL FEELING COMES

A Useful Link: http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/formal.html

THEME:  PAIN, ISOLATION, STRUGGLE OF EXISTENCE 

SYMBOL

-          “pain” – “formal feeling:

o   intense grief eventually gives way to  a formal feeling.  It is impossible to sustain the intensity, so the sufferer retreats into an unresponsive state, where emotions are frozen.

-          the depiction of an essentially paradoxical state of mind in which one is alive but yet numb to life, both a living organism and a frozen form.

-          Were the “great pain” at the beginning of the poem to be considered as a means for Dickinson to present the torment she is experiencing, assuredly its inclusion of striking imageries throughout the poem would be more conspicuous.

o   choice of word “after” implies to the readers how the poet retrieves her “formal feeling” after the ceaseless anguish

o   nevertheless, there is the ambiguity for the existence of “formal feeling” – it could be the delusion that is induced by abrupt demise of the previous perpetual pain.

-          “nerves… like tombs”

o   constitutes an atmosphere of formality, as if her life is under scrutiny, even upon death.

o   The use of the adjective, “ceremonious” connotes the idea of how every part of her, inclusive of the “nerves”, are expected to live under societal expectations

o   Idea of emotional death is intensified by making the nerves, usually the transmitters of feeling, into stone sarcophagi.

-          the helplessness and agony demonstrated within highlights the frustration that the society’s restraint has exerted upon her. In other way, there is also a subtle implication of how Dickinson employs the simile to signify a certain extent of self-defence. The continual agony has compelled her to alienate herself from the society and being reluctant to express any emotion as a result.

-          Although the poem is presented in such a lack of emotions and insensibility, without reserve, the preceding intense distress that the poet has endured would be the chief determinant. Such self-estrangement and desensitisation in sentiment are accentuated through the imageries of “the stiff heart”, “the mechanical feet” and the “ stone-like quartz”, which highlight the numbness of mental and spiritual detachment.

-          Semantic field of rigidity, representing the numbness that succeeds intense suffering

-          paradoxical mental state is revealed by the contradictive description of the “stiff heart” being able to “question”, the personification of “quartz” with “contentment” and in addition, the “mechanical feet” which epitomises the disengagement between her mind and body.

o   imageries are characterized by the possession of a common quality, the quality of “stiff” lifelessness; the insistence on this type of imagery is substantial in confirming the sense of numbed consciousness which is made more explicit by the statement that the feet move “mechanical(ly)” and are "regardless" of where they go.

STRUCTURE

-          lines are bound together, not only by the incessant reference of the imagery to the impact of melancholy, but also the fact that the poet is stating in series what happens to parts of the body: from “nerves” to “heart” to “feet”.

-          Instead of the iambic tetrameter that is usually employed within her poem, Dickinson judiciously applies the iambic pentameter to embody the constant headache she is enduring, and thereby, hinders her from constructing proper sentence structures.

-          lingering of “great pain” within herself has lead to such suppression on her emotions that the act of restraining her speech is a manifestation of confining one’s own lifestyle.

-          Ironically, the unconventional composition of rhyming couplets – “comes”, “tombs”, “bore”, “before” allude to the fact that the ability of self-constraint within Dickinson has been disparaged to such severity that which only agony could repress her recalcitrance.

-          The prolonged stanza in the middle evinces a sense of ponderosity that is provoked by the burden of “stone” acting upon the line; the elongation in this stanza denotes the poet’s sombre mentality invigorating the faltering of speech

-          the adoption of assonance with ‘ought’, ‘stone’ mimic the resonance one would predominantly affiliate with the sheer intensity of pain.

-          the disposition of hyphenation symbolises the stuttering tone of speech and the entrapment of sensibility so as to evade from further affliction.

FEATURES

-          the end of the poem, the poet employs the simile of hypothermia to depict the stages of one’s combat with depression; “Chill” precedes the poem, whereas the "Stupor--" preoccupies it; subsequently "the letting go--" exists on the far side of its ending.

o   Use of hyphens  to fragment the iambi pentameter, slowing it and mirroring the stages experienced by sufferers of hypothermia – pain of cold, the dulling of senses and the final loss of consciousness or will to fight.

o   This line represents the transition, once again, from agony to numbness, represented by the change that people physically undergo when exposed to cold. First comes the chill, which is extreme pain. Stupor is unresponsiveness. Letting go, then, can represent two things, either death or acceptance. Death can represent the idea that the narrator is overcome by extreme pain and sadness permanently and “dies” as one would of hypothermia. However, “letting go” can also refer to letting go of the pain, and that death is some kind of permanent relief from suffering, perhaps symbolizing acceptance or coming to terms with what happened.

o   In a way, this line can represent the choice of the narrator, either to drown in terrible event and its memory, or to somehow regain her humanness, through letting go of the pain associated with the memory in order to heal.

-          Should the deification of ‘Heart’ resemble the anamorphic state of her rationality, incontestably, the sense of detachment that is entailed within would be considered more salient.

o   Such rupture is reiterated through the metaphorical link between the heart and “quartz”, suggesting the inorganic facet of the poet, in which no cessation can be detected, but only with the recurrent forthcoming of suffering

-          Reinstating this unremitting experience, Dickinson illustrates the circular movement of “the feet” “going round” and thereby typifying the lack of control in her life, even upon the notion of time. The poet’s mentality is immersed in such paralysis that the disparity between “yesterday” and “centuries” is obsolete to her.

-          “yesterday—or centuries before?”

o   The phrase also evokes the timeless quality of suffering. All human beings have suffered throughout history, be it symbolically as Christ did (mentioned in the previous line) or physically and emotionally. Thus, pain as a human experience is eternal, yet constraining. It perpetually shackles us because it is inextricably linked with the human condition.

-          With the employment of the definite article – “The” in coalescence with “nerves”, “heart” and “feet”, accentuate the sense of severance that which the poet holds from her organs.

-          Such apathy towards life is revealed through “ought”; she is engrossed by the omnipresent pain in which the deception of being condemned to the realms of the inferno is engendered.

-          “This is the hour of lead”

o   with the symbolic imagery of “lead” being poisonous and heavy, the poet is not only highlighting her headache and its aftermath, but also emphasising the existing era that transcends the norm.

-          The ‘chill’ that which precedes the ‘letting go’ but disconnected by the ‘stupor’ standing in the midst of such a current state of liminality, would seek to allow one to infer correlation with the reference of hypothermia from the simile ‘as freezing persons recollect the snow’ – such equates the emotionless notion of death to that of surrendering to reality.

CONCLUSION:
After all, the desensitisation is nothing but merely a veil “to justify despair”.

MAIN QUOTATIONS

-          “hour of lead”

-          “first chill, then stupor, then the letting go”

-          “mechanical feet go round”

-          “nerves sit ceremonious like tombs”

RHYMES

-          “comes”, “tombs”

-          “bore, before”