by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)
After great pain, a formal feeling comes...
Language: English
After great pain, a formal feeling comes – The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs – The stiff Heart questions 'was it He, that bore,' And 'Yesterday, or Centuries before'? The Feet, mechanical, go round – A Wooden way Of Ground, or Air, or Ought – Regardless grown, A Quartz contentment, like a stone – This is the Hour of Lead – Remembered, if outlived, As Freezing persons, recollect the Snow – First – Chill – then Stupor – then the letting go –
About the headline (FAQ)
Confirmed with THE POEMS OF EMILY DICKINSON: READING EDITION, edited by Ralph W. Franklin, ed., Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Copyright © 1998, 1999 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Copyright © 1951, 1955, 1979, 1983 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College.
Authorship:
- by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, written 1862, appears in Further poems of Emily Dickinson [author's text checked 2 times against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Gloria Coates (b. 1938), "After great pain", from 15 Songs on Poems by Emily Dickinson, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Scott Gendel (b. 1977), "After great pain", 2005 [ voice and piano ], from Forgotten Light, no. 7 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Sylvia Glickman (1932 - 2006), "After great pain" [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Walter A. Aue) , copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , no title, copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Bertram Kottmann
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 13
Word count: 83