Thomas Higginson changing Dickinson's words. An interpretive paper on, "I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain
Emily's Version
I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,
And Mourners to and fro
Kept treading--treading--till it seemed
That Sense was breaking through.
And when they all were seated,
A Service, like a Drum.
Kept beating--beating--till I thought
My Mind was going numb.
And then I heard them lift a Box
And creak across my Soul
With those same Boots of Lead, again,
Then Space--began to toll,
As all the Heavens were a Bell,
And Being, but an Ear,
And I, and Silence, some strange Race
Wrecked, solitary, here.
And then a Plank in Reason, broke,
And I dropped down, and down.
And hit a World, at every plunge,
And Finished knowing--then--
After Higginson's Alterations
I Felt A Funeral in my Brain
I felt a funeral, in my brain,
And mourners to and fro
Kept treading, treading, till it seemed
That sense was breaking through.
And when they all were seated,
A service, like a drum
Kept beating, beating, till I thought
My mind was going numb.
And then I hea...
Jamaica’s climate is warm and sunny. Its range is from 75 degrees Fahrenheit to 85 degrees during the day and 65 degrees during the night. They also have northeastern winds that keep everyone from getting to hot. This geography has greatly influenced the activities of everyday Jamaicans. Its rainy months are from May to November. Jamaica gets about 78 inches or rain a year.
The American Civil War was caused because of the North and South differences in economies, disagreements about abolishing slavery and whether the state or federal government had more power. These three factors played a key role in America's deadliest war. Understanding the causes of the Civil War is important because the war was one of the most important events in our nation's history. After the Civil War all men were truly created equal, it reunited the country as one, and redefined what it meant to be an
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain is about the great adventures that Huck finn has with his slave Jim on the Missouri River. The story tells not only about the adventures Huck has, but more of a deeper understanding of the society he lives in. Twain had Huck born into a low class society of white people; his father was a drunken bum and his mother was dead. He was adopted by the widow Douglas who tried to teach him morals, ethics, and manners that she thought fit in a civilized society. Huck never cared for these values and ran away to be free of them. During Huck’s adventure with Jim he unknowingly realized that he didn't agree with society’s values and could have his own assumptions and moral values. Twain uses this realization to show how the civilized and morally correct social values that was introduced to Huck was now the civilized and morally contradicting values.
Alike the United States, Jamaica also acquired their independence from Great Britain. However, Jamaica did not obtain their independence until August 6th, 1962; virtually 200 years after the United States achieved their independence on July 4th, 1776. After Jamaica gained their independence, they decided to carry on a Constitutional parliamentary democracy, comparable to the government of Great Britain. So, in opposition to of having a president run the country, akin to the United States, Jamaica has a Prime Minister govern their country. However, their government is made up of three branches, legislative, executive, and judicial, reminiscent of the United States. The executive branch consists of the Governor General, the prime minister and, the cabinet. The legislative branch is a bicameral Parliament made up of twenty one appointed senators and sixty elected representatives. Lastly, the judicial branch consists of the Court of Appeal and the courts of original jurisdiction (Jamaica)
Much has been said about Emily Dickinson’s mystifying poetry and private life, especially during the years 1860-63. Allegedly it was during these years that the poetess, at the most prolific phase of her career, withdrew from society, began to wear her “characteristic” white dress and suffered a series of psychotic episodes. Dickinson tended to “theatricalize” herself by speaking through a host of personae in her poems and by “fictionalizing” her inner life as a gothic romance (Gilbert 584). Believing that a poem is “the best words in the best order” (to quote S.T. Coleridge) and that all the poems stemming from a single consciousness bring to surface different aspects / manifestations of the same personal mythology, I will firstly disregard biographical details in my interpretation of Dickinson’s poems 378, 341 and 280 and secondly place them in a sort of “continuum” (starting with 378 and ending with 280) to show how they attempt to describe a “plunge” into the Unconscious and a lapse into madness (I refrain from using the term “journey,” for it implies a “telos,” a goal which, whether unattainable or not, is something non-existent in the poems in question). Faced with the problem of articulating and concretizing inner psychological states, Dickinson created a totally new poetic discourse which lacks a transcendental signified and thus can dramatize the three stages of a (narrated) mental collapse: existential despair, withdrawal from the world of the senses and “death” of consciousness.
Emily Dickinson became legendary for her preoccupation with death. All her poems contain stanzas focusing on loss or loneliness, but the most striking ones talk particularly about death, specifically her own death and her own afterlife. Her fascination with the morose gives her poems a rare quality, and gives us insight into a mind we know very little about. What we do know is that Dickinson’s father left her a small amount of money when she was young. This allowed her to spend her time writing and lamenting, instead of seeking out a husband or a profession. Eventually, she limited her outside activities to going to church. In her early twenties, she began prayed and worshipped on her own. This final step to total seclusion clearly fueled her obsession with death, and with investigating the idea of an afterlife. In “Because I could not stop for Death”, Dickinson rides in a carriage with the personification of Death, showing the constant presence of death in her life. Because it has become so familiar, death is no longer a frightening presence, but a comforting companion. Despite this, Dickinson is still not above fear, showing that nothing is static and even the most resolute person is truly sure of anything. This point is further proven in “I heard a Fly buzz”, where a fly disrupts the last moment of Dickinson’s life. The fly is a symbol of death, and of uncertainty, because though it represents something certain—her impending death—it flies around unsure with a “stumbling buzz”. This again illustrates the changing nature of life, and even death. “This World is not Conclusion” is Dickinson’s swan song on the subject of afterlife. She confirms all her previous statements, but in a more r...
Jamaica has a wide range of geography. The geography varies from mountains, to forests, to coastal plains, to scattered hills, and also plateaus (“History”). Although Jamaica is a small country, it is the largest island of the Commonwealth Caribbean. Along the south coast of Jamaica, there are many small islands. Jamaica lies 118 miles west of Haiti, and 90 miles south of Cuba (“Geography”). The climate varies as much as the geography. The climate at the beaches of Jamaica is going to be different than that of the mountains. At sea level, the climate is tropical. In the mountainous areas, the climate is temperate. May and October are the two wettest months of the year (“History”).
The speaker connects a symbol of death with her brain and says her “mind is going numb,” which implies that a part of her is dying (Dickinson 8). At the end of the poem, the speaker also states “a plank in reason broke / and I dropped down and down” (Dickinson 17-18). The statement of an interruption of logic followed by her descent is a hopeless ending that shows the speaker is losing her rationality and declining mentally. Dickinson portrays a speaker who is dying physcologically and thus is becoming mad. In addition, “I Felt a Funeral,” characterizes death as forcefully acting upon the speaker beyond her control, much like it is in her poem “Because I could not stop for Death.” In the former, Dickinson does not demonstrate the funeral and the downturn as stoppable or preventable, and in the latter she unsuccessfully avoids death. The opening lines “Because I could not stop for Death / He kindly stopped for me” shows the speaker did not want to give up her earthly life (Dickinson 1-2). Though the figure of death treated her politely, it is clear that the presence of death was unavoidable, as it was in the previous poem.
Comparing and Contrasting Dickinson’s Poems, Because I Could Not Stop for Death and I Heard a Fly Buzz - When I Died
As a beginning, let us look closely at one of the poems in which Dickinson gives a detailed account of a deathbed scene: The last Night that She lived
I had never considered Jamaica in the way they did in the movie, Life and Debt. Whenever I thought about the country, which would have been rarely, I always only considered it as a tourist destination. I never took the time and considered what life could be like for those living there yearlong, and particularly those who were not involved in the tourism industry. I mean, if you ask almost any American how they would describe Jamaica, they would describe it’s tropical, beach-like atmosphere, but almost no one would discuss how difficult life is for it’s citizens.
Imagery is a big component to most works of poetry. Authors strive to achieve a certain image for the reader to paint in their mind. Dickinson tries to paint a picture of ?death? in her own words. Thomas A. Johnson, an interpretive author of Dickinson's work, says that ?In 1863 Death came into full statue as a person. ?Because I could not stop for Death? is a superlative achievement wherein Death becomes one of the greatest characters of literature? (Johnson). Dickinson's picture to the audience is created by making ?Death? an actual character in the poem. By her constantly calling death either ?his? or ?he,? she denotes a specific person and gender. Dickinson also compares ?Death? to having the same human qualities as the other character in the poem. She has ?Death? physically arriving and taking the other character in the carriage with him. In the poem, Dickinson shows the reader her interpretation of what this person is going through as they are dying and being taken away by ?Death?. Dickinson gives images such as ?The Dews drew quivering and chill --? and ?A Swelling of the Ground --? (14, 18). In both of these lines, Dickinson has the reader conjure up subtle images of death. The ?quivering an chill? brings to the reader's mind of death being ...
The first thing you notice once you get off the plane, is the heat. Jamaica is in the tropic of Cancer, meaning it never experiences all of the seasons. But here in Barry County, we have all four seasons (sometimes within one day). But in Jamaica the average temperature never drops below 60 degrees. But here it is not unusual to have
Jamaican culture is more than just Rastafarianism and Reggae music. The Jamaican culture encompasses every aspect of life from beliefs, superstitions, and practices to art, education, and tourism. However, the most important aspect of the culture is the African roots that still exist today. Religion and music became essential parts of the slave culture for communication purposes and barrier breakers. Culture is 'the property of the individual and it's a property of societies' (Alleyne 9). Jamaica has a very diverse culture with original natives coming into contact with the Spanish and English. Jamaican culture can be split into the primitive era and the modern era.
Dickinson shows in these lines that her own life reflects that of a dead persons – it appears to be a living thing, but lacks something that makes it alive. It seems that life is a convential pattern, and she is conformed in society just like the people in the coffins. She resents the way that in her society people were heavily placed into stereotypes.