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 –

After I read the poem over and over, I think Emily Dickinson was trying to express a feeling or an emotion by describing the details the physical body changing. As my understanding, Dickinson told the very true feeling and human’s natural reaction. Obviously, she wanted to bring up the feeling after suffering in pain or a shock in the very first sentence. I would say the pain was a spiritual pain after something happened so sudden. Dickinson used “tombs” to indicate the shut-down nerves after the shock. Then, she said “the stiff heart questions…” that I can truly understand that feeling that my heart keeps asking, but I don’t really want to know the answer since I may not be able to bear the truth.

In the second stanza, I like the first two sentences a lot because I have the same reaction when I suffer something unexpected: walk mechanically like a machine to nowhere. But I could tell the second stanza is a bit different than Dickinson’s typically writing since the second stanza has 5 lines in short forms. I questioned myself that should I read “A wooden way” and “Regardless grown,” together, but I still can’t understand these two lines. I wondered if she wanted to say we have to live and grow no matter what happened, but why a wooden way? This made me stuck. And then, I read it as: we should be tough and be satisfied with what we have.

In the third stanza, I like the whole ending. As what I understood, she said we have to wake up from the machine-walk and back to the reality to live our life even it is a cruel one. I would say she might write this poem in the winter time since she mentioned snow and chill. “As freezing persons……..then the letting go-” corresponded to the previous stanza: “freezing person” was whom suffered pain;”chill” was indicated to the stiff heart; and “the stupor” was talking about the mechanical feet. At the end, she said “the letting go-” means we have to let go the all the pain and live.

This poem extends my interest in Emily Dickinson. I looked up her website “Emily Dickinson Museum”, and found the “Tips for Reading Dickinson’s Poetry” and then I followed the instructions to read the poem over again. I think I understand more. I like how Dickinson broke a sentence to words and the dashes make everyone can substitute their own stories into the poem. I found Emily was the woman of foresight in the 19th century and she had great observations.