After great pain, a formal feeling comes: Poet & Context

Emily Dickinson Context

Emily Dickinson was an American poet predominantly known for her unconventional style, with unique rhythmical structures, and the extensive use of dashes and capitalization in her works. This can be seen in ‘After great pain, a formal feeling comes’.
Dickinson led a reclusive lifestyle with limited social interactions, her solitude marking her work. She often wrote about themes of death, suffering, and existential questions, consistent with ‘After great pain, a formal feeling comes’.
Living during the Civil War era, scenes of death, loss, and suffering were common, which impacted her writing. This is reflected in the poem’s theme, which explores the aftermath of a deep, emotional pain.

This poem posits an individual’s reaction to profound suffering, making use of powerful metaphors and images to convey the raw emotional state that follows great pain or tragedy.
Literature analysts hypothesize that this poem may have been triggered by Dickinson’s own experiences, given her health issues and experiences of isolation.
Dickinson uses the ‘formal feeling’ as a metaphor for the numbness or emotional paralysis that comes after intense emotional pain.

Dickinson was raised in a devout Christian family but struggled with the concept of faith throughout her life. In this poem, the absence of any religious solace or divine intervention, indicates possible disillusionment.
Quaker tradition played a notable role in Dickinson’s upbringing. Its beliefs in experiencing God personally, rejecting formal religious rituals, and valuing silence/healing, can be seen reflected in Dickinson’s poetry.
The religious skepticism reflected in the poem would have been quite shocking for the 19th-century audience given the society’s strong adherence to faith during this period.