"After great pain, a formal feeling comes", poem 341, Emily Dickinson (1955)

Abstract

The poem, "Under Scrutiny' is strongly reminiscent of 'Pain has an element of blank' in the way it describes a state of numbness, a sort of in-betweenness placing the subject at the limit between consciousness and oblivion. The two poems echo each other perfectly in their evocation of the timelessness of pain.