Pain, A Formal Feeling, and Uncertainty By Zhong

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 –


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I find this poem really heavy and sad. The theme of it is already very heavy: the pain and suffering we experience turn into a kind of formal feeling that renders our nerves and hearts ceremonious and stiff. However, what strikes me most about this poem is the uncertainty that is emphasized throughout--the uncertainty of time (yesterday, or centuries before), of destination (the feet, mechanical, go round), and perhaps of other things (a wooden way of ground, or air, or ought. I don't really understand what she is talking about in this line but it looks uncertain enough simply by its appearance). 


This uncertainty and confusion of time also come from the relationship the person has with this pain that has already passed. It is outlived but remembered. It is not forgotten. The person carries the pain with himself in his memory and can and will constantly revisit and even relive it. This adds to the uncertainty.


This uncertainty really helps depict the stupor, the stiffness, and the Quartz contentment that the person described in this poem is in. It makes me imagine someone who's wandering around slowly, not thinking about what to do or where to go, not knowing or caring whether it is Monday or Tuesday, and is rather content with this status, or at least tolerates it without any resistance. 


Another thing I love about this poem is the metaphors, similes, and words Dickinson uses to describe this status: tombs, mechanical, wooden way, Quartz, stone, Lead, and even the word freezing. All of these words look heavy and most of them mean heavy things. 

Comments

  1. Krishnan VenkateshApril 12, 2021 at 12:43 PM

    Well expressed, Mr. Zhong. The final metaphor of death by hypothermia comes as a relief -- that one CAN "let go" and end the suffering, or end this numb suffering. Yet, as you point out, the poem suggests a ritual quality, as if this happens again and again. So the "letting go" means that we don't necessarily die, which is both good and bad. We come back and do it again.

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