I felt a Funeral, in my Brain

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain, (340)

BY EMILY DICKINSON

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 -

I am going to try and analyze this poem without any background knowledge expect the little recollection of Emily Dickinson from 8th grade. Emily Dickinson as I remember was a loner and wrote hundreds of poems in her room. I think she hid them all over her house and whatnot. The most memorable poem of hers that I remember reading is "Nobody" because it parallels so much with her actual life. Also, I remember that Dickinson never titled her poems, which is why the titles we give them are just the first line of the poem. With that limited knowledge, "I felt a Funeral, in my Brain" by Emily Dickinson starts off with a peculiar image. The command center of one's body, and in this case the speaker's, feels a Funeral. What could that mean? How does one feel a commemoration ceremony of death inside the brain? I thought that maybe the speaker is saying that her source of connection with others, route to memories, and road to thinking process were shut off. The third line "Kept treading - treading - till it seemed..." emphasizes the monotony and strong meaninglessness as the Mourners paced back and forth without purpose. The speaker's life could resemble the Funeral procession and how the life was spent in futility. I don't quite understand the second stanza because the mourners finally "were seated" but instead of the mourners, the Service takes the place of the stagnation with its dull and rhythmic beating. The two stanzas stresses how something always "Kept treading" and stresses it by capitalizing it and repeating the line. Therefore, it is during that futile progression that the mysterious 'them' lift the coffin and look into the depth of the speaker's Soul. The third line of the third stanza is very interesting, "With those same Boots of Lead, a gain,... began to toll". The "Boots of Lead", capitalized, signify a slowing and perhaps reluctant walking towards an unknown Space. In that space, the speaker identifies her/himself as one that belongs to "some strange Race", marking that even the speaker does not know or realize what he/she is. The speaker is all alone in that stagnant monotonous Space. The mourners are all gone and it is only the speaker that is present. A peculiar syntax with the phrase "a Plank in Reason" evokes that the plank is justified for breaking, letting or forcing the speaker to an unforeseeable bottom. I have to keep in mind that the speaker is still a soul that has been let out of the coffin in the third stanza. Therefore, by dropping, the speaker hits 'a World', another seemingly foreign place, either still as a soul or human being. The last line is significant because it shows how the journey out of the coffin was in essence a quest for knowledge and experience. I am not quite sure what to make of this poem because the tone is very depressing from start to finish. Even the mention of Heaven did not lift the dreary mood at all. Also, the speaker leaves his or her own funeral without consent and only leaves because the mourners lift the box. Although I may have analyzed completely different from Dickinson's intention, I can't help but believe that the poem illustrates the tedious journey for light that will always perpetuate in a cycle.