I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain by Emily Dickinson - Literary Analysis Essay

Introduction

Emily Dickson was a poet and author who contributed a lot to literature. In her "Complete Poem" number 280 "I felt a Funeral, in my Brain" she presents intriguing paradoxes on imagery for her audience using anonymities and ambiguities. The poem uses mind peculiarity to personify the funeral and death to portray the theme of imagery to show a sad and gloomy tone. This paper will make a critical analysis of the poem to portray the theme, tone, and atmosphere created by Dickson when writing the poem "I felt a Funeral, in my Brain". The paper will further discuss the structure and styles used in the poem to demonstrate close reading.

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Symbolic Vocabulary and Imagery of Death

In the poem, "I felt a Funeral, in my Brain", Emily Dickinson uses one of the saddest experiences in human life, death. Using symbolic vocabulary richly, Dickinson portrays life odds and metal decay as a symbolic representation of evoked sanity slide. The strange scenario in her text goes outside the ordinary happening presuming that her funeral was taking place depicting things beyond normal thinking. Human beings hold the idea of their own death with precocious caution and perceive mythical omens on anyone visualizing or thinking of how their burial will take place even with the clear knowledge that they are mortal beings. Throughout the poem, Dickinson speaks of the mental exploration of the sadness of her funeral giving a symbolic representation of gloomy imagery of the sad ordeal.

The Funeral Metaphor in the First Stanza

In the first stanza, the funeral metaphor depicts the solo in the narrator's mind. The poem title and the opening line "I felt a Funeral, in my Brain" arrest the reader's expectations on the sadness and gloomy mood in the proceeding lines or else the rest of the poem. In the continuation portrays the unsettled mind of the narrator as she explains of the image representation of the funeral with the presentation of mourners all over walking from all sides. But the closing line changes focus "That Sense was breaking through -" to signify that this funeral was only a thought of the narrator. It is a symbolic indication of non-sober and disturbed mind. The narrator uses the metaphor of the funeral to symbolize the sadness in her thoughts and the mourners' movement to symbolize her deep thought, thinking of some trouble over and over, backward and forward, pacing again and again until she feels like losing up. This stanza is a symbolic representation of solo and turbulence in the narrator's mind. She is suffering from very sad thoughts that are making rounds over her mine to demonstrate confusion.

The Shift to Settled Thoughts in the Second Stanza

The second stanza, the narrator takes a different direction of the sad affair revolving in her mind. Dickinson still uses the metaphor of the funeral where at this stage the mourners are at a service. She says: "And when they all were seated," (stanza 2 line 1), to show that now the movement of the mourners has shifted from "to and fro" to "seated". In this symbolic representation, the narrator tries to show her audience that amidst wild thinking she finds a point when her thoughts settle for some time. In lie two, three and four of the second stanza, "a service, like a drum/ kept beating - beating - till I thought/ My mind was going numb -" At this juncture, the narrator loses her calmness in the mind and starts wondering wildly. The symbolic image of the sad experience with the funeral proceedings the writer is able to communicate the sad tone and create a gloomy atmosphere for the reader. Again, in this stanza, the poet shows that the whole funeral idea is happening in her mind making a symbolic representation of the mourners' reaction and the noise from the drum beating to have a metaphoric illustration of her brain state.

The Climax of Symbolic Exemplification in the Third Stanza

In the third stanza, the poet presents the climax of the symbolic exemplification of the funeral ceremony. The narrator recounts on the sad moment after the service to move to the gravesite. She says: "And then I heard them lift a box" (Stanza 3 Line 1) this is a symbolic demonstration of losing one's sanity or reasoning power because in logical perspective the narrator was talking of her funeral but she would not be feeling it when the mourners lift the "box". This opening statement in the stanza shows that the funeral the narrator was talking about was not in reality but, something troublesome in her mind she was equating to death. In the subsequent lines in this stanza, the writer says: "And creak across my soul/ with those same boots of lead. Again/ then space - began to toll," (Line 2 - 4). In this entire stanza, it becomes clear that the narrator was fighting a sanity battle thus the validity of the poem's title when she talks about feeling a funeral in the mind. The "space" she is talking in line four shows that this deep thought and sadness has killed her sanity, reasoning, and personality causing her to feel a void of reality.

Lastly, stanza four offers reassurance and hope to the narrator's destiny. The poet talks about the moment after the funeral with a light at the end of the tunnel with the bells in heaven. Literal understanding she is not in her right mind to hear the heaven bells. In the subsequent lines, her mind goes to silence, isolation, and wretchedness. This section of the poem is a symbolic representation of the sad mood assumed by the narrator as well as the physical and mental torture she is undergoing to show that she was not in her right sanity state and the soulful ordeal bothering her felt like it was killing her emotional being.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the poem by Emily Dickinson "I felt a Funeral, in my Brain" is an emotional recount of a sad experience that the narrator encountered after an emotional breakdown that felt like her own burial. The author uses metaphoric imagery of human sadness emanated from death and the burial ceremony to signify the state of mind she was in at that time. The funeral is not real because she was conscious of the activities yet she was presuming to be in the casket for her burial. The author begins with running multiple thoughts in her mind thinking over and over until the thoughts assimilate her hearing noises. The disturbance in her mind leads to the intense sadness that she felt like her sanity was dead and being buried. The use of symbolic representation like "drums" and "bells" so signify the multiple noises the narrator was hearing are imagery illustration of the intensity of the disturbance her thoughts were giving her. The poem leaves a reader wondering what was the actual cause of concern of the narrator because of the ambiguous language applied throughout the poem.

Works Cited

Dickinson, Emily. I felt a Funeral, in my Brain (280) 1830 - 1886 https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/i-felt-funeral-my-brain-280.