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 word ?funeral? 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 t

hroughout 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.

The speaker made it through the cycle of life, living dying and rebirth. Each stage was a hard endeavor, with some followed a period of relief, and others followed with a sense of desperation, as if things will never get better. Heaven and earth's descriptions contrast each other so much, but no matter how peaceful Heaven seems, the gloomy karma still lurks throughout. This vicious cycle of life will always continue just as it is reflected in the poem.

In the last stanza the solitude breaks, and all that was once good is dropping, as if this was the wrong choice. This is seen in the line "And then a Plank in Reason, broke,". If "Reason" is a deck made of wood containing many planks, then if a " Plank" was to break you would fall. This would reflect the next line "And I dropped down, and down-And hit a World,." Here is where the speaker falls through the deck or, "Reason" occurs. The speaker drops from Heavens and continues dropping. The emphasis (repetition) on dropping down is to show how far heaven is away, and how far the speaker actually was before falling. This brings him back to reality, back to the world were life begins and ends. The words chosen for the line "at

Some topics in this essay:
Emily Dickinson's, Finished Knowing, Plank Reason, Brain Life, life death, treading -treading-, cycle life, funeral brain, vicious cycle, speaker hears, boots lead, race wrecked, beating -beating-, sense breaking,