After great pain, a formal feeling comes.
-- Emily Dickinson
A man may write at any time, if he will set himself doggedly to it.
-- Samuel Johnson
Keep right on to the end of the road.
-- Harry Lauder
The average Ph.D. thesis is nothing but the transference of bones from one graveyard to another.
-- Frank J. Dobie
Guide
“After great pain, a formal feeling comes” is the title of a poem by the English poet Emily Dickinson. It describes the delicate emotional state of mind that may come over a survivor of recent trauma or profound grief. Here the person (unknown) who cited this compares completing a thesis to a difficult experience or to grief. The calm after the storm of work and stress? You tell me.
"Doggedly" means to keep on, not to give in, to persist, in this case with your chosen course of study.
Harry Lauder was the writer of the song "Keep right on to the end of the road", which came out in 1911. He was as famous in his day as Michael Jackson is today. Again, it is an encouragement to persist, to keep on, until you reach your destination (your degree)
"Transference" Is to move something from one place to the next. Dobie was an American professor and writer. From this quote he obvious didn't think much of the originality of the theses he saw. The metaphor, bones from one graveyard to another, in '... the transference of bones from one graveyard to another ' is saying basically that most students copy the ideas of others and rewrite enough to avoid a charge of plagiarism.
Until next time