The poem opens mid-thought, as if the title's phrase, "a formal feeling," has slipped into the first line and carried on. That feeling is grief, and the speaker describes moving through it along "a narrow road" that leads, unexpectedly, to gratitude. What they are thankful for is plain and ordinary: goodness, work, family. There is no big declaration, just a short list of things that hold a life up.
Then the tone shifts. "I miscarry a sea" is a startling image. The word suggests a loss before something could be born, and the sea suggests something vast, too large to carry. The speaker admits they "cannot bear / my new day alone." The pun on "bear" matters: it means both to endure and to carry a child.
The mood is quiet, fragile, and honest. Gratitude and sorrow sit side by side, and neither cancels the other. The poem suggests that thankfulness can help you get through grief, but it doesn't make you strong enough to do it by yourself.