Life, death, and reincarnation are portrayed in Emily Dickinson's poem "I felt a Funeral, in my brain". The use of words associated with death gives the poem an ominous and dark karma. At the beginning of this poem the feelings of grief and pain are evident. Throughout the rest of the poem, there is a strong sense that the speaker needs to make a choice between a world full of trouble and pain or a heaven that brings solitude and peace. This is all part of a vicious cycle. Sometimes when life doesn't turn out for the best, you need to wait until your cycle is up. This is reflected clearly at the end of the poem. The speaker lives life, passes away, and is reborn again into this world all throughout this poems' entirety. .
The first two words of this poem reveal strong feelings. 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. The wordfuneral? combined with "brain" can be simplified into the fact that death is inside the speaker. "And mourners to and fro/Kept treading -treading- till it seemed/That sense was breaking through." Here, the speaker is bothered by their inner death that keeps mourning over and over throughout their head. The marks between "treading -treading-" allow a pause between the two words, inducing a long, repetitive treading. This repetition causes irritation. Finally, "sense was breaking through". This simply means that the constant repetition is now starting to make sense. A feeling of relief has surfaced, but only for a short while. .
In the second stanza, as quickly as the voices made sense to the speaker, the quicker they stopped. In the line "And when they all were seated" the relief stops, its being seated. When relief is seated and not moving, all seems to stop. The speaker brings us to the funeral by using the words "A service", meaning funeral service, like one that takes place at a funeral home.
