A Painful Experience

Emily Dickinson, the author of a poem called, “After a great pain, a formal feeling comes” conveys the message that, people who went to a painful experience often changes dramatically and they will see the world differently. The author was able to prove her message through the use of words and structuring. In this passage, the author was able to present the stiffness and numbness of a person who have been through a painful experience. People who went to a painful experience often changes dramatically and they will see the world differently.
People lose their sense of time after going through an awful incident. Emily Dickinson explains the confusion involved with the lost of time by mentioning, “And yesterday, or Centuries before?” which describes …show more content…
They do not care about what they are doing as much as before. In order words, they are just going along the current of a river. Dickinson describes this experience with the image of “The Feet, mechanical, go round–” Her description gives the reader a feeling that the person in the poem accomplishes her routine automatically, without thinking. After all, mechanical is what describes a robot, an object that functions just for a purpose given to it and does not have a will. Next, Dickinson mentions the word, ‘go round’ to express the repetitive actions of the robot. Literally, the feet automatically go around by itself, as though that person does not have any thoughts of what she is doing, and just follows the routine with no change. She is lifeless after the impact of the incident. The world becomes meaningless and everything does not matter to her. Under the effect of the painful event, she loses herself, her character. She becomes something like a robot, a non-living thing which has no feelings. She might have lost a dear one giving her no purpose of living. Hence, this explains her dramatic change in her …show more content…
Hence, the author manages to explain this experience by saying, “This is the Hour of Lead.” In other words, the aftermath of a painful incident is the period of time when a person would come to feel an everlasting pain. She would remember this event for a long time and it seems endless in a similar way to the life of lead, which are centuries long. Moreover, through the author’s use of the word, lead, readers could conclude that the person in the poem must be in agony. This is because lead is very heavy it suggests that whenever the person calls back to that moment, for instance, the death of a close one, she would remember each detail, and the sorrow would weigh down her heart. During this awfully long and heavy period of time, she would see the world differently because she is constantly bringing up those unwanted memories. It is possible that her world is dull, miserable, and monochrome instead of