After Great Pain a Formal Feeling Comes
Illustration 

From my project "Songs For The Dead"- a collection of songs dealing with death and the different approaches to the subject.

After Great Pain a Formal Feeling Comes- By Emily Dickinson

After great pain a formal feeling comes-
The nerves sit ceremonious like tombs;
The stiff Heart questions-was it He that bore?
And yesterday- or centuries before?The feet, mechanical, go round
A wooden way
Of ground, or air, or ought,
Regardless grown,
A quartz contentment, like a stone.
This is the hour of lead
Remembered if outlived,
As freezing persons recollect the snow-
First chill, then stupor, then the letting go.