"After A Great Pain, A Formal Feeling Comes" by Emily Dickinson

Even though this poem was really somber, I liked it. I think Emily Dickinson is an amazing poet and definitally wrote some of the best works in American poetry. I really like the way she uses metaphors in her imagery. This poem was an ideal example of the way she uses imagery as a metaphor.

This poem was about the death and funeral of a person who died. In the title itself she starts the metaphors; the great pain resembles the death and the formal feeling is the funeral. This all makes sense because funerals are always very formal and proper.

She also goes on to describe the family as nerves, and how they are sitting "ceremonious like tombs," and also she uses the symbol of lead to describe how heavy the mutual feeling that everyone has. To end the poem she writes:
"As freezing persons recollect the snow--First chill, then stupor, then the letting go."
She related the feeling of losing someone to the feeling of clenching snow with your bare hands. First you're affected by the person loss, then you become numb to the feeling and eventually come to terms and let go of the person.