“After great pain a formal feeling comes.”

A feigned death will I die.
So found I, once before,
In deaths great alchemy
How I
Grew strange, resplendent, more
Marvelous at heart, learning the reason why
All must die, and also I.

All must die once, but more than once will I
Copy death’s state.
Throng of the dead, throng not for long create,
I join your hosts, — slowly I go
Beyond the zone of pain and pleasure, my
Self so released, and learned, and passionate.

…feigned death, that copies so
The posture of cold woe that is not woe;
Feigned death, our healthy lie…
…feigned death, rehearsed in quiet, try
The nerve reluctant, until I
Learn by such fractions, what it is to die…

Trance, all reconciled,
This is death’s art;
This will I teach my heart
For practice, by and by,
When from this trial death, I come to try
Life once again by whose great power we die.

We die:
A grim death, life-in-death, we die.