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I Felt a Funeral in my Brain

            The poem I felt a funeral, in my Brain by Emily Dickinson is a dream about the speaker's death. This is evident because of the capitalization of brain in the line "I felt a funeral in my Brain,"" In the poem the speaker does not only discuss the physical aspects of dying but also the process of mourning. Emily Dickinson herself loved earth and was unsure about letting go of it to move on to heaven. This poem shows the speaker mourning the loss of her connection with earth rather than a person.
             The poem follows a traditional New England funeral. The people begin to enter the church for the service. The repetition of the word treading and to and fro gives the reader a repetitive feeling. The repetition of the rhythm of the mourners going back and forth annoys the speaker. The noise of her friends and family alive and her dead and disconnected bothered her. Then they tread "till it seemed/ That Sense was breaking through "" the capitalizes word sense illustrates the dreamer almost waking up. .
             In the next stanza the mourners are seated for the service, this line shows that the dreamer has gone back to sleep. The service is described to be like a drum and that is " beating "beating "till I thought/ My Mind was going numb "" Again, the repetition and the word numb shows how as they speak about her life the poet is aggravated that she has to leave it behind. .
             The next stanza the dreamer hears "them lift a Box- the box is capitalized and is used to describe the coffin. Box also sounds more confined than a coffin and the dreamer .
             is feeling confined from the world. The line "With those same Boots of Lead, again,"" is showing that once again she is feeling separated from life. Boots of Lead is a heavier phrase than the others describing the feeling. Dickinson did this because she wanted to show the feeling of solitude becoming stronger as the dreamer is closer to being buried, and separated from life forever.


Essays Related to I Felt a Funeral in my Brain

1. I felt a Funeral, in my Brain

"I felt a Funeral, in my Brain" Life, death, and reincarnation are portrayed in Emily Dickinson's poem "I felt a Funeral, in my brain". ... The words "I felt" show that the speaker is talking about themselves. The line "I felt a funeral, in my brain" brings to mind death. ... Confusion is shown in this line, "like a drum-/Kept beating -beating- till I thought/My mind was going numb". ... Shown in lines 9-11, "And then I heard them lift a box/And creak across my soul/With those same boots of lead". ...

  • Word Count: 1034
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

2. Heaney

Emily Dickinson (Note: more material is to follow shortly) Dickinson has five poems on the course as follows: Because I could not stop for Death I felt a funeral in my Brain The Soul selects her own society Of all the Souls that stand create At Half Past Three Themes: I felt a funeral in my Brain The poem deals with intense anguish and suffering, using the funeral procedure as a sustained metaphor which eventually destroys the sanity. ... She could be opting for any of the following: i)Poetry, ii) a special person or a loved one, iii) because she cannot have the man she lov...

  • Word Count: 348
  • Approx Pages: 1
  • Grade Level: High School

3. Emily Dickinson and Surreal Imagery

This poem is about a mental breakdown felt by Dickinson, she is in a state of psychic trauma. ... The opening line ˜I felt a funeral, in my Brain' has the effect of causing the reader's imagination to be shocked, horrified and enthralled by this image. ... However, in ˜I felt a funeral, in my brain' the force seems to be more menacing than surreal. ... She begins by describing the events of the funeral as being ˜in my Brain' this implies that the feeling is still very much on the surface, in the physical world. ... ˜My Mind was going numb'. ...

  • Word Count: 1109
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

4. emily dickinson

Emily Dickinson's poems "Because I Could Not Stop for Death", "I Heard A Fly Buzz-When I Died", and "I Felt A Funeral In My Brain" all deal with one of life's few certainties, death. ... Life, death, and reincarnation are portrayed in Emily Dickinson's poem "I Felt A Funeral In My Brain." ... In line 1, the words "I felt a funeral in! my brain," sparks thoughts of death. ... Her works "Because I Could Not Stop For Death", "I Heard A Fly Buzz When I Died", and "I Felt A Funeral In My Brain" all explored the subject of death. ...

  • Word Count: 1472
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Grade Level: High School

5. Close Reading of Emily Dickins

The reader can never see or picture these people at the funeral in the narrator's Brain. ... In the first stanza, Dickinson utilizes the metaphor of a "Funeral, in my Brain- (Ln. 1) and specifically uses capital letters to emphasize important nouns. I felt a Funeral, in my Brain, And Mourners to and fro Kept treading - treading - till it seemed That Sense was breaking through - In normal sentence structure, one does not capitalize words in the middle of a sentence; however, when Dickinson utilizes this style technique, it highlights the actual weight of each word (usually a noun)...

  • Word Count: 1027
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

6. My Oldest Daughter

At that very moment I knew I was looking at my hero. ... After calling my boyfriend's phone a hundred times, it felt like, I finally got him on the phone. ... After a week and a half in the hospital the doctors ran some testing and had pronounced my six and a half month old baby girl brain dead. ... I really do not remember much of the funeral. ... Because of this I had felt at the time that I needed to end all of my misery and commit suicide and Halie once again saved me. ...

  • Word Count: 1867
  • Approx Pages: 7
  • Grade Level: High School

7. Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson Emily Dickinson can be known as one of the greatest poets of her time (Reinhart 343). Her poems were not recognized until after her death (Young 77). Though her poems, the world came to know about Emily Dickinson and her life (Reinhart 343). Dickinson's poems came about through h...

  • Word Count: 644
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

8. Adolf Eichmann - Nazi Bureaucrat

The way I think she portrays him contradicts what I actually believe. In my opinion he should have been condemned the way he was, however, I believe that he shouldn't have been the only one punished. ... With his incapability to do such things it seems as if Eichmann has a mental disorder where his brain didn't fully develop. ... We will never know if Eichmann truly felt guilty for what he did, but it seems as if he never felt sorry for his actions. ... (Page 252) In his last moments of life his mind played one last trick on him; he was "elated " and had even forgotten that he was at...

  • Word Count: 1350
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Grade Level: High School

9. Bob Marley

"Cold ground was my bed last night and rock was my pillow too." ... I can't imagine becoming closer to my God by smoking marijuana. ... So many times when I have felt down, I put on this song and my problems almost do seem to leave me. ... I could never see myself leaving my home country in order to support my political beliefs. ... Ten days later, he was given a state funeral in Jamaica, attended by more than 100,000 people. ...

  • Word Count: 1698
  • Approx Pages: 7
  • Grade Level: High School

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