Some of my recent poems have centered on Emily Dickinson’s use of rhymes – full rhymes, partial rhymes, other types of rhymes. Some of them have examined whether or not partial or slant rhymes were used for poems of despair while full, traditional rhymes were used in poems of joy.
In “Positive as Sound, Emily Dickinson’s Rhyme,” Judy Jo Small examined other ways Dickinson used rhyme as well.
“Another tactic Dickinson employs is the deliberate dislocation of a rhyme for a special semantic effect,” wrote Small. “In the well known ‘After great pain, a formal feeling comes,’ the lines are arranged in rhymed couplets, except in the anomalous second stanza.
In the middle stanza, the unthinking ‘Wooden’ motion that continues in states of spiritual numbness is suggested not only by the idea of feet functioning mechanically without the guidance of the mind and will but also by the steady iambic movement that proceeds dully without regard to (‘Regardless’ of) stanzaic shape or placement of rhyme. ‘Ground’ rhymes perfectly with ‘round,’ but not at the end of the line where it would seem orderly and coherent. Instead, it falls almost lost amid two unrhymed lines that move as if randomly, aimlessly, like the body whose soul is stupefied by pain. The word ‘Feet,’ then refers not only to human feet but, in a subsidiary way, to poetic feet.”
Interesting, huh? But consider this.
Small’s book was published in 1990, eight years before R. W. Franklin published his “The Poems of Emily Dickinson.” Therefore, she was likely basing her analysis on Thomas Johnson’s version of the poem in his 1955 edition of “The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson.”
Oddly enough, there are differences between the Johnson and Franklin versions of the poem, albeit subtle differences. First, the Franklin edition adds quotation marks in lines 3 and 4. However, the more significant difference involves lines 6 and 7 – the order of these lines is reversed.
In “Positive as Sound, Emily Dickinson’s Rhyme,” Judy Jo Small examined other ways Dickinson used rhyme as well.
“Another tactic Dickinson employs is the deliberate dislocation of a rhyme for a special semantic effect,” wrote Small. “In the well known ‘After great pain, a formal feeling comes,’ the lines are arranged in rhymed couplets, except in the anomalous second stanza.
In the middle stanza, the unthinking ‘Wooden’ motion that continues in states of spiritual numbness is suggested not only by the idea of feet functioning mechanically without the guidance of the mind and will but also by the steady iambic movement that proceeds dully without regard to (‘Regardless’ of) stanzaic shape or placement of rhyme. ‘Ground’ rhymes perfectly with ‘round,’ but not at the end of the line where it would seem orderly and coherent. Instead, it falls almost lost amid two unrhymed lines that move as if randomly, aimlessly, like the body whose soul is stupefied by pain. The word ‘Feet,’ then refers not only to human feet but, in a subsidiary way, to poetic feet.”
Interesting, huh? But consider this.
Small’s book was published in 1990, eight years before R. W. Franklin published his “The Poems of Emily Dickinson.” Therefore, she was likely basing her analysis on Thomas Johnson’s version of the poem in his 1955 edition of “The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson.”
Oddly enough, there are differences between the Johnson and Franklin versions of the poem, albeit subtle differences. First, the Franklin edition adds quotation marks in lines 3 and 4. However, the more significant difference involves lines 6 and 7 – the order of these lines is reversed.
In Johnson’s version, “ground” comes just two syllables after “round.” In Franklin’s version, “ground” comes six syllables later. Does that matter when it comes to Small’s contention? I suppose one could say “‘ground’ falls almost lost amid three unrhymed lines’ – or does the probability that Dickinson was aiming for an internal rhyme fall apart?
A bit more trivia about the poem: "After great pain a formal feeling comes" was first published in "The Atlantic" in February 1929. At that time, it was presented in three stanzas of 4 lines, 5 lines, and 6 lines. It later appeared in that same year in "Further Poems of Emily Dickinson.
In both publications, the Franklin/Miller version of the second stanza was used.
In both publications, the Franklin/Miller version of the second stanza was used.
 |  |
RSS Feed
