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I Felt a Funeral in my Brain

            The poem I felt a funeral, in my Brain by Emily Dickinson is a dream about the speaker's death. This is evident because of the capitalization of brain in the line "I felt a funeral in my Brain,"" In the poem the speaker does not only discuss the physical aspects of dying but also the process of mourning. Emily Dickinson herself loved earth and was unsure about letting go of it to move on to heaven. This poem shows the speaker mourning the loss of her connection with earth rather than a person.
             The poem follows a traditional New England funeral. The people begin to enter the church for the service. The repetition of the word treading and to and fro gives the reader a repetitive feeling. The repetition of the rhythm of the mourners going back and forth annoys the speaker. The noise of her friends and family alive and her dead and disconnected bothered her. Then they tread "till it seemed/ That Sense was breaking through "" the capitalizes word sense illustrates the dreamer almost waking up. .
             In the next stanza the mourners are seated for the service, this line shows that the dreamer has gone back to sleep. The service is described to be like a drum and that is " beating "beating "till I thought/ My Mind was going numb "" Again, the repetition and the word numb shows how as they speak about her life the poet is aggravated that she has to leave it behind. .
             The next stanza the dreamer hears "them lift a Box- the box is capitalized and is used to describe the coffin. Box also sounds more confined than a coffin and the dreamer .
             is feeling confined from the world. The line "With those same Boots of Lead, again,"" is showing that once again she is feeling separated from life. Boots of Lead is a heavier phrase than the others describing the feeling. Dickinson did this because she wanted to show the feeling of solitude becoming stronger as the dreamer is closer to being buried, and separated from life forever.


Essays Related to I Felt a Funeral in my Brain

1. I felt a Funeral, in my Brain

"I felt a Funeral, in my Brain" 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 ... 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 ...

  • Word Count: 1034
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

2. My Oldest Daughter

... I didn't even think I could have help myself. I had thought about the cheap way out and just ending all of my misery with suicide, until I seen in my oldest daughters eyes how bad she really needed me. The year before Halie was born you could easily say I was a wild ... my boyfriend's phone a hundred times, it felt like, I finally got him on the phone. It was the worst news a mother could ever receive. My youngest daughter was in the hospital in critical condition. After a few hours of her being in the hospital, they flew her to a better hospital in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. My oldest...

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3. The Importance of Nothing In An Overall Understanding

... over them, have you noticed? I first noticed because of Jennifer, she was a truly beautiful woman who stole all my money. The memory of our original meeting is still to this day firmly embedded in my brain-bag, ah, it was a magical moment. The sky was in the air and the trees were bluer than ever before then suddenly there she was coming out of the ... over two nuns. I was so embarrassed and duly punished, as three is the legal minimum in Holland. I also accidentally locked Jennifer in a small cupboard once and she didn't care much for that but the most nauseatingly misguided thing I di...

  • Word Count: 2282
  • Approx Pages: 9
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4. Hamlet- what do we learn in the 1st act about his character?

... mother. This "incestuous" marriage would be the beginning of hamlets depressive state of mine. Shown in his soliloquy later in the play "Weary, stale, flat and unprofitable" Act one, scene 2, line 132 The betrayal felt by Hamlet of his own mother is immense and is even carried on to his own love ... death but the mothers wedding to Claudius within the same 2 months. Hamlets feel there is such speed between the two momentous occasions that: "The funeral backed meats, Did coldly furnish the marriage tables" Act one, scene 2, line 180 This quote shows the bitter, sour and sardonic humour Ha...

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5. Emily Dickinson and Surreal Imagery

This poem is about a mental breakdown felt by Dickinson, she is in a state of psychic trauma. The mood of changes progressively throughout the poem; it becomes darker and more surreal. The opening line ˜I felt a funeral, in my Brain' has the effect of causing the reader's imagination to be shocked, horrified and enthralled by this image. It is a figurative image, shown by the use of the ... word ˜felt' , which is a surprising choice of verb in this context because one would usually expect the word ˜saw'. I think ... the verbs creates a mood of expectation for a penultimate moment. This th...

  • Word Count: 1109
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6. Heaney

... shortly) Dickinson has five poems on the course as follows: Because I could not stop for Death I felt a funeral in my Brain The Soul selects her own society Of all the Souls that stand create At Half Past Three Themes: I felt a funeral in my Brain The poem deals with intense anguish and suffering, using the funeral procedure as a sustained metaphor which eventually destroys the sanity. The Soul Selects Her Own Society Dickinson ... reality from appearance and sham from truth. The images of sand and mist will dissolve to reveal the central brain of reality and truth ("Atom"). At Half Pas...

  • Word Count: 348
  • Approx Pages: 1
  • Grade Level: High School

7. emily dickinson

... Emily Dickinson's attitudes towards mortality. Emily Dickinson's poems "Because I Could Not Stop for Death", "I Heard A Fly Buzz-When I Died", and "I Felt A Funeral In My Brain" all deal with one of life's few certainties, death. Dickinson's intense curiosity towards mortality was present in much of her work, and is her legacy as a poet. "Because I could Not Stop for Death" is one of Emily Dickinson's most ... indicated that life is a never-ending journey. These two poems deal with similar topics however they are entirely different in that one believes in lif! e after death and the other ...

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8. Close Reading of Emily Dickins

... 's discernment of reality. The reader can never see or picture these people at the funeral in the narrator's Brain. Instead, this poem is best understood by the sounds she describes it by. In the first stanza, Dickinson utilizes the metaphor of a "Funeral, in my Brain- (Ln. 1) and specifically uses capital letters to emphasize important nouns. I felt a Funeral, in my Brain, And Mourners to and fro Kept treading - treading - till it seemed That Sense ... was breaking through - In normal sentence structure, one does not capitalize words in the middle of a sentence; however, when Dickinson ...

  • Word Count: 1027
  • Approx Pages: 4
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9. FDR

... could not grasp those ideals. e. Hoover was not an outgoing person, whereas Roosevelt radiated charm. f. Hoover blamed foreign nations for the depression. g. Roosevelt tried to seek solutions by setting up a "brain trust" to analyze the depression and find solutions to fix it. h. Roosevelt wanted immediate relief for unemployment. Election of 1936 a. Roosevelt swept the election due to his previous terms actions ... a navy destroyer to retrieve his dog who was left behind in the Aleutian Islands. g. To these, Roosevelt said; "These Republican leaders have not been content with attacks on...

  • Word Count: 8316
  • Approx Pages: 33
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