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Emily Dickenson's After Great Pain, The Formal Feeling Comes: literary and
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International Journal of Current Advanced Research
ISSN: O: 2319-6475, ISSN: P: 2319-6505,
6505, Impact Factor: 6.614
Available Online at www.journalijcar.org
Volume 7; Issue 5(B); April 2018;; Page No. 12305-12308
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24327/ijcar.2018
//dx.doi.org/10.24327/ijcar.2018.12308.2158
Research Article
EMILY DICKENSON’S AFTER GREAT PAIN, THE FORMAL FEELING COMES: LITERARY AND
STYLISTIC APPROACHES
Mohammed Yassin Mohd Aba Sha’ar1 and Khalil Abdullah AbdulghaffarAbdulqader2
1 Research Scholar AMU,
AMU Department of English
2 Research Scholar AMU,
AMU Department of linguistics
AR T IC L E I NF O AB ST RA CT
Article History: Emily Dickenson is widely acclaimed as one of the greatest poets in the history of
th American literature. Her poetic power lies in her poetic style, spiritual themes and the
Received 5 February, 2018
accuracy of diction. Her poetry is profoundly stirring as it depicts acutely the nature and
Received in revised form 20th
challenges in lives of human beings with profound feelings. Her poem After the Great Pain
March, 2018 Accepted 8th April, 2018
the formal feeling comes is regarded as the greatest poem in pain and death. This paper
Published online 28th May, 2018
introduces Emily Dickinson as one of the brilliant American writers. Subsequently, the
paper analyzes the poem literarilyas it substantiates Dickenson’s craftsmanship, in which
Key words: she depicted three cohesive organic stages of pain and death in three successive stanzas.
Thereafter, the paper examines the most dominant stylistic levels as proposed by Geoffrey
graphological, semantic, Emily Dickenson, N. Leech. More accurately, the paper analyzes the graphlogical
aphlogical and semantic deviations as
stylistic, deviation they are the most prevailing and ostensible levels in the poem the poem.

Copyright©2018 Mohammed Yassin Mohd Aba Sha’ar et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution
License,
se, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cite
cited.

INTRODUCTION number common deviations (grahological, lexical,

phonological, morphological, syntactic semantic …etc.).
Emily Dickenson is considered as one of the most original However in this paper we will analyze the poem After Great
American writers who realistically and artistically used to pain Formal feeling comes through only two stylistic levels,
argue in her poems various predicaments that encounter the graphoplogical and semantic lev
levels.
human beings in their lives. Her poem After Great Pain, the
Formal Feeling she emphasizes the universal fact that the soul Emily Dickenson as Literary Genius
departure into the other world normally by great pain and Verily, Emily Dickenson is considered as one of the most
death is the ultimate end. Thereby, this poem is acknowledged influential poets in the American history. She is often
as the best poem on pain and death. Accordingly, this paper described as a biologist and also a naturalist as she devoted
will analyze literary and exploree stylistically the graphological some of her poem to the plants and aanimals. She quiet often
and Semantic levels as they seem to be the most prevailing utilizes them as objects for her metaphors, similes and symbols
deviations in the poem. throughout the use of ecological and spiritual language. She
After Great Pain, the Formal Feeling Comes is considered as shared the beauty of nature and created beautiful gardens in
Dickenson’s most famous poem about the pain before the her own poems. Dickenson is considered as brilbrilliant American
death. It is magnificent
nt poem as it stresses the eternal fact poetess who began writing in the mid of nineteenth century,
about the death which ends the lives of every human being. during the period of expansion or the period of the American
The poem explains in three stanzas the successive stages of the civil war. In this particular period the American literary writers
departure of the soul from the body of the human being. The abandoned romanticism and moved into realism. Thereby Thereby,
poem ends with the formal service of the funeral as the body realism interpreted more conspicuously the humanity and
becomes immovable like the stone it is going to be moved into peoples’ destiny. Accordingly, realism has been appreciated by
the eternal dark room ‘tomb’. reader and audience more than romanticism.
Geoffrey N. Leech was a specialist in language and linguistics Howeverher deep religiosity can be accounted for the
who contributed significantly in the field of literary stylistics. environment in which she was living. In fact Dickenson lived
In his book A linguistic Guide to English Poetry (1969) he has in Amherst village which was retaining a very deep rooted
explored a theory of stylistic deviations in which he enlisted a American puritanical identity. Despite, Dickenson is also
viewed as one of the most original writers in history of the
*Corresponding author: Mohammed Yassin Mohd Aba American letters. Her poetry is well well-known for its
Sha’ar unconventional punctuation, dashes and the accurate selection
Research Scholar AMU Department of English
Emily Dickenson’s After Great Pain, The Formal Feeling Comes: Literary And Stylistic Approaches
of words. Most of her poems are written in short forms with the soul). It ends with the formal service of burial and the
terse verbal expressions. journey to the eternal dark room for the human being.
Over all, reading Dickens’ poems one can realize the poetic Exploring the Graphological and Semantic Deviations
method, poetic attitude and religious themes substantiate her
The present section makes an attempt to explore two types of
unique literary genius.
linguistic deviations in the poem “after greet pain, the formal
After Great Pain, the Formal Feeling Comes: A Literary feeling comes” and the reasons for the usage of linguistic
Analysis deviations by Emily Dickinson. In fact, linguistic deviations
embody stylistic beauty to the writing. The poem has been
Wittingly, Dickinson’s’ poem After Great Pain, the Formal
analyzed based on the theory of linguistic deviations which has
Feeling Comes is regarded as the best poem ever written on
been proposed by Leech in 1969. Undoubtedly, literary works
pain and death. The poem was written two years before her
always contain linguistic deviations and foregrounding. The
death. Artistically, it underlines the theme of inevitability of
linguistic deviation theory revolves around eight types of
pain and death for all the human beings. It explains explicitly
deviations. These types of deviations are lexical,
the successive stages of death as it starts with the pain of dying
graphological, phonological, semantic, grammatical, historical
before the soul departure, then the process of numbing (the
period, dialectal and deviation of registrar. The poets usually
human being is helpless as pain increases till the human being
use these deviations for certain purposes which can be
begins accepts the power of pain that ends with looting the
abrogating the regular norms of grammar, enhancing the
human consciousness) and thereafter the soul departs and the
aesthetic sense of the poems, showing certain emotions,
human body becomes cold and immovable like “piece of wood
creation of new words, enhancing the rhyming schemes in the
or stone”. The poem consists of three stanzas that adequately
poem and to make readers interpret certain phrases, sentences
and organically illustrate cohesive stages of death.
beyond the surface meanings. This section of the study
In the first stanza the speaker is talking about the serious pain provides a detailed analysis of two linguistic deviations
which comes before the departure of the soul. It is painful supported by examples that have been extracted from the
moment as the soul will be extract from the human body and poem. Amongst the eight types of linguistic deviations
taken into the other world. This type of pain after a while proposed by Leech in his theory (1969), graphological and
makes the nerves of the human being “ceremonious” artificial semantic deviations are discussed as they prevail in this poem.
and immovable like a “tomb” or “stone”. Even the heart if the
Graphologicaldeviations
human beings become “stiff” i.e. senseless of pain and time.
Dickenson, used the capitalized “He” to refer to Jesus Christ. It This type of deviation is comparatively small and superficial
indicates here that even Jesus Christ could not escape the pain portion of style. It concentrates and concerns linguistics
of death which he encountered during His crucifixion. problems such as spelling, capitalization, hyphenation, dash,
Consequently, the excessive pain made the nerves and heart italization and paragraphing. These problems are determined
senseless and as a result the dying person begins to lose the by syntax and are noticed in expressions when a grapholoical
conscious state of mind as the speaker lost the sense of time choice is made by a writer that is to come extent marked or
and became unable to know whether the pain is recent or was unconventional, example can be intentional misspelling (Leech
there since a century ago. Ultimately the speaker lost the sense and Short, 1981). Graphological deviations are getting evolved
of the self and begins to feel isolated from him/herself. since they are seen in different ways that people use to express
: emphasis using, spacing and special symbols. Capitalization
Thereafter, in the second stanza the speaker portrays how the
of different sizes is used for emphasis, irony, satire and other
dying person after being subjected to sever pain has lost the
literacy purposes. Hyphen is used for two types of word
conscious state of mind. He begins feeling like floating on the
separation: a break at the end of a line, and the parts of a
air. The speaker feels that he neither belongs neither to the
compound word (green-eyed). It is also used to produce a
earth nor the world. The severe pain consequentially forces the
contrast in meaning which is delivered (crystal, 2003). Dash is
dying person to lose control over his body parts and thereby
employed to exhibit a comment or after thought at the end of a
begins free movements and moving around himself helplessly.
sentence, or simply an incomplete utterance. Sometimes it is
Just for a while then the movements cease, the soul departs and
used to signal a missing word or letter. Graphological
the body of the dying person becomes like a piece of wood
deviation is the most superficial level that is the easiest type to
(immovable and senseless). Metaphorically, the speaker
identify. It deals with the entire writing system. It is ‘the
compared the dying body with the stone-both are senseless and
characteristic line- by -line arrangement of poetry on the
immovable. In this stage the dying person accepted the
printed page’, with irregular right-hand margins.” The
excessive pain since there is no more pain like that anymore.
typographical line of poetry, like the typographical stanza, is a
The Third stanza begins metaphorically by describing the
unit which is not paralleled in non –poetic varieties of English:
human body after death as something heavy and immovable
it is independent of and capable of interacting with, the
which is waiting to be moved “for leading” into the tomb. It
standard unit of punctuation. This interaction is a special
the moment the body is carried by friends and relatives from
communicative resource of poetry (Leech 1969). In brief,
the previous home into the dark eternal home. The speaker
graphological deviation refers to the kind of print,
obliged here if he/she is going to survive after this pain he/she
grammatrics, punctuation, indentation, etc. Graphology is the
will he experience of dying. But it is rare because such pain
process which encodes meaning in visual symbols (Abbas,
brings the ultimate end of the human beings. The last line sums
2017). Examples of graphological deviations used and
up the successive experience of dying as it first begins with
employed by Emily Dickinson in her poem “after great pain,
pain, then stupor (state of unconscious due to the excessive
the formal feeling comes’ are as follows:
pain) and thereafter chill (extreme cold, after the departure of

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 International Journal of Current Advanced Research Vol 7, Issue 5(B), pp 12305-12308, May 2018

Capitalization this poem, Emily Dickinson has employed commas in many

positions. Throughthe whole poem, commas are used 13 times
Emily Dickinson has employed this type of graphological
i.e. 3 times at the end of lines and10 times inside the lines.
deviation in many places throughout the poem. The
Generally speaking, Emily Dickinson has employed commas
capitalization occurs in lines 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12 and 13. It
in many positions. Through the whole poem, commas are used
disappears on lines 1, 8, 11.Below Look at the poem and looks
13 times i.e. 3 times at the end of lines and 10 times inside the
how the capitalization occurs in many situations throughout
lines. Generally speaking, Emily Dickinson has employed the
the poem:
comma frequently to indicate the pauses, caesuras and deeply
After great pain, a formal feeling comes- thinking regarding the poem’s events and experiences. She has
The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs- used question mark once at the end of the first stanza. There
The stiff Heart questions ‘was it He, that bore,’ are three commas break the construction of this question that
And ‘Yesterday, or Centuries before’? extendfrom the middle of the previous lines. The function of
The Feet , mechanical, go round- punctuation in poetry lies in the following aspects: Primarily
A Wooden way from the conventional perspective, it is used to clarify
Of Ground , or Air, or Ought- meanings and avoid ambiguities by separating or joining
Regardless grown, together words, phrases, clauses, sentences or units of
A Quartz contentment, like a stone- meaning. On the other hands, the unconventional way of using
This is the Hour of Lead- punctuation is capable of dragging the readers into and having
Remembered, if outlived, the readers engrossed in the usually mysterious and
As Freezing persons , recollect the Snow- imaginative literary world built by the poets (Li & Shi., 2015)
First- Chill– then Stupor – then the letting go-
Semantic deviations
From the above lines , we discover that the graphological
Semantic deviation is regarded as the most significant level of
deviation (capitalization) occurs in 18 words inside the lines
linguistic deviation since figurative language is the heart of the
through the whole poem. All these words form the linguistic
poetry. Semantic deviation exhibits a transfer in the meaning
deviations’ in the poem. Infact, Capitalization in writing
of words. It can be a phrase that contains a word whose
intensifies the effect of the words and feelings. All these
meaning flouts the anticipation that is produced by the words
capitalized words are supposed to be decapitalized. Emily
which surround it. Semantic deviation refers to ‘nonsense’ or
Dickinson deviates in these situations to draw the attention of
‘absurdity’, but the sense in which the word or phrase has been
the readers and to emphasize her meanings, emotions, feelings
used has a literal meaning that can be inconsistent logically or
and meaningful messages.
paradoxically in nature. Poets use semantic deviations to evoke
Dash psychological impressions. This kind of deviation is mostly
used to prompt the reader to seek the underlying meanings of
Dash is one type of graphological deviations that is employed
the words in order to interpret the text, following are the
by Emily Dickinson in many lines through this poem. It occurs
examples of semantic deviations which have been used by
at the end of the lines 1, 2, 5, 7, 9, 10, 12, and 13.
Emily Dickinson in her poem “ after great pain, a formal
Comes - Line 1 feeling comes.”
Tombs - Line 2
Metaphor
round - Line 5
ought - Line 7 A metaphor is a process of mapping between two different
Stone - Line 9 conceptual domains. The different domains are known as the
Lead - Line 10 target domain and the source domain. The target domain is the
Snow - Line 12 concept that you draw upon in order to create the metaphorical
go - Line 13 construction (Simpson, 2004) .In this poem, Emily Dickinson
has employed metaphors in some lines such as lines 2,3, 5, 6, 9
This type of deviation also occurs in the middle of the last line
and 10. The collocations of words in these lines are logically
to separate different words.
and semantically incompatible. The collocations of words in
First -Chill- then Stupor – then the letting go these lines are “herves + sit”, “heart + questions”, “Feet +
mechanical”, “Wooden + way”,“Quartz + contentment” and
From the above examples, we find out that Emily Dickinson
‘Hour + lead”.
has used dash as a substitute for some punctuation marks
which shows stronger effects or difference in meaning. In fact, Personification
dash at the end of a verse conveys that the sentence has not
Wales (2014) defines personification as a figure of speech or
ended. Emily Dickinson has also employed the dash in the
trope in which an inanimate object, animate non-human, or
middle of the last line to indicate pauses, thinking and
abstract quality is given human attributes: a kind of metaphor.
contemplations .By using the dash many times through this
Emily Dickinson has employed personification in lines 2 and
line, the line looks deviant in comparing with the other lines
3, i.e. in the beginning of these following two lines:
given above.
The Nerves sit ceremonious …………………….. Line 2
Punctuation
The Stiff Heart questions…………………….. Line 3
Being one of the most important elements in writing,
Simile
punctuation includes the use of all the necessary marks such as
a comma, colon, semicolon, period, dash, hyphen, ellipsis, Simile is one of the stylistic devices used to reinforce a certain
blank, parenthesis, question mark and exclamation marks. In feature of a thing. It is an important instrument for comparing
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Emily Dickenson’s After Great Pain, The Formal Feeling Comes: Literary And Stylistic Approaches
two objects by using the formal elements of the simile in its References
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CONCLUSION Atlantic, January 1913. Retrieved in April 10,
2018.https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1913/
Emily Dickenson is a real genius poet whose facultywas not
01/the-poetry-of-emily-dickinson/306525/
nurture by constant travel, nor by officialeducational training,
Poet Feature: Emily Dickinson. Brilliant Books. April 8, 2017.
but rather by thechumminess with the small creatures which
Retrieved in April 10, 2018.https://www.brilliant-
the Americans don’t routinely realize and rarely appreciate.
books.net/poet-feature-emily-dickinson
This paper testifies the craftsmanship of the Dickenson as a
Shrestha, Roma. "After Great Pain a Formal Feeling Comes
literary genius and a realistic poet who describes the
by Emily Dickinson: Summary and Critical Analysis."
predicaments that challenge the human beings accurately and
BachelorandMaster, 9 Nov. 2013,
tersely. The literary analysis of the poem substantiates
bachelorandmaster.com/britishandamericanpoetry/after-
Dickinson’s brilliance as a poet. Subsequently, the poem was
great-pain.html
examined stylistically just through the semantic and
Simpson, P. (2004), Stylistics: A Resource Book for students,
graphological levels, as they were seen the most prevailing in
London, New York: Routledge.
the poem. However, the poem was constructed artistically and
Wales K. (2014) A Dictionary of stylistics. New York:
arranged psychologically and scientifically. It consists of three
Longman Group
stanzas that depict successive and interrelated stages of pain
and death as if the poetess died once and described her
experience. Therefore, the poem is considered as the best
poem ever written on pain and death.

How to cite this article:

Mohammed Yassin Mohd Aba Sha’ar et al (2018) 'Emily Dickenson’s After Great Pain, The Formal Feeling Comes: Literary
And Stylistic Approaches', International Journal of Current Advanced Research, 07(5), pp. 12305-12308.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24327/ijcar.2018.12308.2158

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