18 pages • 36 minutes read
After great pain, a formal feeling comes
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Further Reading & Resources
Related Poems
“Easter Wings” by George Herbert (1633)
Emily Dickinson presents pain as dignified and honorable, but the 17th-century metaphysical poet George Herbert depicts pain as mostly abject. His speaker describes themselves as “[d]ecaying more and more” (Line 3) and filled with “sicknesses and shame” (Line 12). As with Dickinson’s speaker, Herbert’s speaker connects pain to religion, with Herbert’s speaker believing that their pain will subside once they’re united with God. In the context of Herbert’s poem, “the letting go” (Line 13) occurs when a person separates themselves from the anguished human condition and connects themselves to a higher power.
“I felt a Funeral, in my Brain” by Emily Dickinson (1896)
“After great pain” depicts pain as a process: There’s a dignified detachment, a daze, and then there’s letting go. In “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,” Dickinson turns death into a similar process, featuring mourners, a service, a burial, and then the jarring experience of death. As with pain, Dickinson presents death as a “solitary” trial (Line 16). In “After great pain,” there are no people around to help the distressed person: The person must survive their trauma on their own. In “I felt a Funeral,” the mourners are oppressive and bring the dead person no comfort. The aloneness links to Dickinson’s choice to separate herself from people. It also reinforces the perception of Dickinson as a stark philosopher, boldly investigating fraught states like trauma and death.
“The Weary Blues” by Langston Hughes (1926)
Langston Hughes is a canonized 20th-century American poet who’s routinely associated with the Harlem Renaissance. In “The Weary Blues,” Hughes’s speaker watches a Black musician sing the blues:
I got the Weary Blues
And I can’t be satisfied.
Got the Weary Blues
And can’t be satisfied—
I ain’t happy no mo’
And I wish that I had died (Lines 25-30).
The man’s “Weary Blues” (Line 25) links to Dickinson’s “great pain” (Line 1), with the weary blues overtaking the man. Yet the man isn’t “formal” (Line 1) or “mechanical” (Line 5). Rather, pain makes him expressive and emotional. At the same time, the man feels “like a rock” (Line 35), and his thoughts about death suggest the only way that he can let go of his pain is through dying.
Further Literary Resources
“To Build a Fire” by Jack London (1902)
Jack London is an American writer from the early 20th century, who was famous for his adventure stories. In his short story “To Build a Fire,” a man ignores warnings against traveling through the forest in extremely cold temperatures, and the nameless man eventually dies. In the context of Dickinson’s poem, London’s unnamed man can be considered one of the “Freezing persons” (Line 12) Dickinson calls out in “After great pain.” As the man hasn’t “outlived” (Line 11) the snow, his “letting go” (Line 13) involves death. The story adds layers to the themes and symbols in Dickinson’s poem. The man dies because he alienates himself from the other men at camp, believing he can hike the forest with only his dog. The man’s undue confidence in himself indicates a lack of humility.
A Question of Power by Bessie Head (1974)
Bessie Head is a 20th-century South African writer, and in her autobiographical novel, A Question of Power, the main character, Elizabeth, regularly finds herself in psychological distress, battling a trio of antagonist figures, Dan, Sello, and Medusa. The anguish doesn’t make Elizabeth “formal” (Line 1) or “ceremonious” (Line 2), but angry and violent. Yet the mental torment doesn’t lead to Elizabeth’s death. She experiences her “Hour of Lead” (Line 10) and chooses to push back and dislodge the figures responsible for her suffering.
Until They Bring the Streetcars Back by Stanley Gordon West (1991)
The American author Stanley Gordon West’s novel centers on a group of teens in St. Paul, Minnesota. The main character, Cal Gant, confronts the pain of a distant father. He also tries to help another teen, Gretchen Lutterman, survive her horrifically abusive father. While the distressed person in Dickinson’s poem is on their own, the teens in West’s novel have others. West’s story demonstrates how the presence of people can help the person in pain let go or survive their traumatic experiences.
Listen to Poem
Listen to the award-winning American actress Julie Harris read Dickinson’s lyrical poem about suffering. Harris also starred in William Luce’s one-woman play about Dickinson’s life, The Belle of Amherst (1976).
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By Emily Dickinson
