Rotation 6 Blog 2
“After Great Pain, a Formal Feeling Comes” by Emily Dickinson
This poem has 3 stanzas with 4 lines (quatrain) in the first and last stanza and 5 (cinquain) in the middle stanza. The rhyme scheme is a,b,c,c so there are rhyming couplets at the end of each stanza. This poem was pretty complicated for me but I think I got the gist of it. The title/ first line basically sums up the meaning of the poem. Dickinson uses similes, “The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs”, comparing nerves to tombs and how after being in pain, nerves are calm and stagnant like tombs. She also says, “A Quartz contentment, like a stone”, although I’m not entirely sure what she is referring to when she says “A Quartz contentment”. She uses imagery through the colors she mentions like quartz, stone, and lead are all grayish silver colors. The last line makes me think that it could be about death coming after pain instead of just a good feeling. She also says it is a “formal feeling”, and the whole process of funerals and dying can be very formal. Also, she compares nerves to tombs, so there again is the hint of death. The last line says “…then letting go” which to me sounds most like giving up and dying.
“American Primitive” by William Jay Smith
This poem has three stanzas with four lines in each stanzas making it a quatrain. There is an a,b,a,b rhyme scheme. There is a very strong simile Smith uses that I think defines the whole poem which is “And I love my Daddy like he loves his Dollar”. This shows the importance money is to this boy’s father. In the second stanza when he says “His lips are blue, and his hands feel cold” it seems like his father is disconnected with emotion by seeing him as “cold”. I also noticed that dollar was capitalized which gives it even more importance. The imagery used to describe the father shows how wealthy he is with his “stovepipe hat” and “handsome collar”; the reader would be able to tell by the imagery alone that the man is rich. Some children may have resentment toward a parent for being so obsessed with money but this child seems to be very proud of it.
