On Emily Dickinson's Poem #341

Yuen M. Ho
English 48B
January 24, 2007
Journal #14 Emily Dickinson

I. Quote

“After great pain, a formal feeling comes—
…
As freezing persons, recollect the snow—
First—Chill—then stupor—then the letting go—”

II. Summary

This poem is about the feeling of pain and its aftermath. Pain can represent physical pain, and can also symbolize pain in the heart—the feeling of being hurt or upset by a person, or an incident. She used the process of recollection of snow to explain a similar pain process. The first one is chill—meaning feeling painful. Then one will experience a period of stupor—meaning not being able to relieve but suffer greatly from the pain. After all, one will be able to let go—of chill or of the painful experience.

III. Response

The ability of Emily Dickinson to make connections between things that we are seldom able to relate in our daily life leaves me in awe after reading the poem. I could have never thought of relating the feeling of great pain with the recollection of snow. Yet, when Emily Dickinson connected the dots, I was inspired to discover more connections, especially implicit ones, between different objects, actions, feelings, places and people.

The poem demonstrates how Dickinson conceived and handled pain—she was not an optimistic person who regarded painful experience as a lesson earned. Yet, she saw it just as a natural process— any effort to manipulate or alter it will just end in vain.

She also delivered a positive message to all of us. We should not take incidents or people that cause us great pain too seriously, because the nature dictates that the feeling will go somehow. If that’s so, why don’t just chill out and let go?