18 pages • 36 minutes read
After great pain, a formal feeling comes
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Literary Devices
Form and Meter
The stanzas give the poem an organized look. Stanza 1 and 2 have four lines (a quatrain) and Stanza 3 has five lines (a quintain). Like the “formal feeling” (Line 1) and “Quartz contentment” (Line 9), the stanzas are dignified and contained. Meanwhile, the uneven line lengths link to alienation. The person in pain takes on several identities, and, likewise, the lines feature an array of lengths. The four lines in Stanza 1 and the last two lines in Stanza 3 are about the same length. Yet all of the lines in Stanza 5, and the first two lines in Stanza 3, are noticeably shorter. Within the clipped group of lines, there are even shorter lines, with three words in Line 6 and two words in Line 7. The curtailed lines reflect the sharp stoicism of “Quartz” or “a stone” (Line 9), while the longer lines allude to the “ceremonious […] Tombs” or “Nerves” (Line 2). As with the Nerves and Tombs, the longer lines are, due to the nature of their length, ornate.
The meter relates to the varying line lengths, Lines 1, 2, 3, 4, 12, and 13 use iambic pentameter, so they contain five pairs of unstressed, stressed syllables (iambs). In Line 1, the stress is not on “Af” but on “ter”; likewise the next stress is not on “great” but on “pain.” The presence of iambic pentameter reflects the honorable attributes of pain, with canonized poets like William Shakespeare and John Milton using it in their works.
The lines in Stanza 2 alternate between iambic tetrameter and iambic dimeter. Line 5, has four iambs, while Line 6 contains two iambs. Line 10 features iambic tetrameter, while Line 11 is one syllable short of iambic tetrameter.
Alliteration and Rhyme
Alliteration is a literary device where the poet places words together that possess the same first letter or a similar sound. Alliteration occurs immediately in Emily Dickinson’s poem with the phrase “a formal feeling” (Line 1). The two “f” words add to the formality, as the alliteration makes the two words seem like an estimable couple—a decorous king and a queen or two honorable people. The alliteration continues when the “Nerves sit ceremonious” (Line 2) since “s” and “c” make identical sounds in this setup. There’s a subtle alliteration with “Heart” and “He” (Line 3). The “h” words—separated by three words—connect the heart to Christ, suggesting that Christ is in the heart of the person who’s suffering. The alliteration continues with “Wooden way” (Line 6) and the similar sounds in “Ground” and “Ought” (Line 7). There’s also slight alliteration with “Lead” (Line 10) and “Remembered” (Line 11). The sounds make pain melodious. It becomes a piece of music or a series of calculated notes. The speaker knows how the song ends—with “letting go” (Line 13).
Alliteration correlates to the rhymes, as both bolster the poem’s sound. There are slant rhymes, as “comes” (Line 1) doesn’t rhyme perfectly with “Tombs” (Line 2). There’s also a slant rhyme between “Lead” (Line 10) and “outlived” (Line 11). More so, there are perfect rhymes in the final two lines of Stanzas 2 and 3: “[G]rown” (Line 8) rhymes with “stone” (Line 9), and “Snow” (Line 12) rhymes with “go” (Line 13). Thus, each stanza ends on a couplet with a sing-song sound. The presence of perfect rhymes and slant rhymes reflect the dignity and the alienation of pain. The perfect sounds, due to their exact sounds, represent the former, while the slant rhymes, due to their deviations, symbolize the latter.
End-Stops
The poem’s configuration of lines contains noticeable end-stops. Unlike enjambment, end-stopped lines end with a punctuation mark. In Dickinson’s poem, 12 of the 13 lines conclude with a grammatical pause (Line 6 is the exception). The dominance of end-stopped lines emphasizes the “mechanical” (Line 5) and “Wooden” (Line 6) qualities of processing pain. While enjambment would indicate a smooth free-flowing motion with lines seamlessly flowing into one another, the end-stopped lines create a choppy movement, with the punctuation marks reinforcing the separation between each line. As eight of the 12 punctuation marks are dashes, the punctuation mimics the “great pain” (Line 1). The dashes cut up the lines, similar to how suffering alienates and fragments a person.
At the same time, the end-stopped lines contribute to the dignified formality of the poem. The punctuation turns each line into a separate, discrete unit. The lines, like a “Quartz contentment” (Line 9), are composed and contained. More so, the end-stopped lines advance the confidence of the speaker, who knows what pain does to a person and how a person can move on from their suffering. The poem turns dealing with pain into a series of steps, and the punctuation at the end of the lines highlights the boundaries of the respective phases.
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