Analysis Of I Felt A Funeral In My Brain

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Emily Dickinson was a big 18th century poet and wrote many poems about things you cannot see but only feel with experience such her poem “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain”; that was initially presented in 1896. Many of Dickinson’s poems were not about what was going on in the world, but more on what went on in her mind and her logic; this was due to her growing up around the Transcendentalism period. In the poem, “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain” Dickinson uses metaphors and imagery to try to describe complex ideas. Dickinson was known for self-dramatization and hyperboles in many of her poems. Many poets such as Marianna Moore, Louise Bogan, and Conrad Aiken have spoken of Dickinson’s wonderful work. “Her poems have been translated into Polish, It speaks on the mind falling apart. This is shown by “the opening stanza presents the metaphor of a funeral that is used throughout the poem to convey the sense of a breakdown” (“I felt a Funeral, in my Brain” pg 137) She goes on to use the word brain which “refers to both the concrete physical organ and the abstract idea of the speakers mind” (“I felt a Funeral, in my Brain” pg 137) By using the word brain it can show the intellectual impact of her disintegration within her mind. The second stanza “dramatizes the speaker’s fears and mental instability primary through the use of sound.” (“I felt a Funeral, in my Brain” pg 137)In this stanza, the speaker used the words “my mind was going numb “to show how much she was intellectually impacted, and how much what the pain had done to her. In the third stanza the impact on the speaker’s mind becomes more intensive and more so as the poems goes on. She uses the words “boots of lead” and “treading treading” meaning she in being stepped on. “What is being trampled is the speaker’s soul” she feels like she is being stepped on because the pain keeps spreading and spreading throughout her body. Lines 12-16 Dickinson uses the words “as all the heavens were a bell “this metaphor is used to described the problems are getting louder but she is giving up all hope, and okay with her pain. “The speaker’s soul has no hope of shutting out the madness that has possessed it” This is a theme throughout the poem because Dickinson is more having insanity and losing any sanity that she had. “By comparing the speaker’s mental breakdown to a funeral, Dickinson suggest the horror and finality of such an event, “(“I felt a Funeral, in my Brain”pg 138) She is not having any sanity what so ever, by comparing an intellectual impact to something of such terror and darkness as a funeral. “The speakers sanity becomes more endangered until it finally dies.” (“I felt a Funeral, in my Brain”pg113) like Dickinson is so despondent that she has anger and turmoil burned so much inside of her. She also goes forward to use the words “my mind was going numb” and “hit a world, at every plunge” to describe an unalterable type of pain. She uses the words “And then a plank in reason, broke.” and then goes to say “And I dropped down, and dropped down”. These lines of text mean that that the reason she had to keep going fell apart, and she sunk more and more. Another Theme explored in this poem is doubt and uncertainty because people can view the poem as meaning “an individual’s complete loss of faith” .Dickinson also goes on to say “a service like a drum” which churches have services and she states “all the heavens were a bell” that could be compared to church

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