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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Browse alphabetically through more than 9,000 words in Dickinson’s poetry, as defined in the Emily Dickinson Lexicon, based in part on her dictionary, Webster's 1844 American Dictionary of the English Language.

Houghton Library - (26c) After great pain, a formal feeling comes -, J341, Fr372

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Credits: Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Dickinson, Emily, 1830-1886. Poems: Packet VI, Fascicle 18. Includes 13 poems, written in ink, dated ca. 1862.
Houghton Library - (26c) After great pain, a formal feeling comes -, J341, Fr372
Publication History
Atlantic Monthly, 143 (February 1929), 184, and FP (1929), 175, with the transposition, as three stanzas of 4, 5, and 6 lines; in later collections, as three quatrains. Poems (1955), 272-73, with line 7 before line 6; also CP (1960), 162. MB (1981), 395, in facsimile. (J341). Franklin Variorum 1998 (F372A).
-History from Franklin Variorum 1998

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Imported: 2013-10-21 13:02:46 -0400
Order: 15
Order Label: (26c) After great pain, a formal feeling comes -, J341, Fr372
Label: (26c) After great pain, a formal feeling comes -, J341, Fr372
Filename: ms_am_1118_3_26_0003

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J341 - After great pain, a formal feeling comes --

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 --
Of Ground, or Air, or Ought --
A Wooden way
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 Work

First Line/Title: After great pain, a formal feeling comes --
Date: 1862
Edition: Johnson Poems 1955
Number: J341

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Year: 1862
Manuscript: Manuscript: Early 1862, in packet 6 (H 26c). In the second stanza ED has placed 1, 3, 2, 4, respectively before lines 1, 2, 3, and 4, as though she intended the stanza to read: The Feet, mechanical, go round -- A Wooden way Of Ground, or Air, or Ought -- Regardless grown, A Quartz contentment, like a stone --
Publications: Publication: Atlantic Monthly, CXLIII (February 1929), 184; FP (1929), 175. In later collections the text is arranged as three quatrains. The second stanza reads: The feet mechanical Go round a wooden way Of ground or air or Ought, regardless grown, A quartz contentment like a stone.

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Related Works in Other Editions

F372A - After great pain a formal feeling comes

The Poems of Emily Dickinson, Variorum Edition, Franklin, 1998