after great pain

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
of ground, or air, or ought
a wooden way
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.

-- emily dickinson, 'after great pain, a formal feeling comes'.