"Hope" Is the Thing with Feathers: No. 1, After Great Pain, a Formal Feeling Comes

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 –