FREE ESSAY ON 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
karms. To add to this karma, important words that are strong in meaning are capitalized.
At the beginning of this poem the feelings of grief and pain are evident. Throughout the
rest of the poem, there is a strong sense that the speaker needs to make a choice between
a world full of trouble and pain or a heaven that brings solitude and peace. This is all
part of a vicious cycle. Sometimes when life doesn't turn out for the best, you need to
wait until your cycle is up. This is reflected clearly at the end of the poem. The
speaker lives life, passes away, and is reborn again into this world all throughout this
poem's entirety. The first two words of this poem reveal strong feelings. The words I
felt show that the speaker is talking about themselves. In line 1, the words I felt a
funeral in my brain, brings to mind death. The word funeral combined with the word 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-(2,3,4). Here
the speaker is bothered by their inner death that keeps mourning ober and ober throughout
their head. The dashes between treading-treading-, allow a pause between the two words,
inducing a long, repetitive treading. This repetition causes irritation. Finally, sense
was breaking through (4). 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. In the
second staza, as quickly as the boices made sense to the speaker, the quicker they
stopped. In line 5,  and when they all were seated the relief stops, its being seated.
When relief is seated and not mobing, all seems to stop. The speaker brings us the
funeral by using the words the service, meaning the funeral service, like one that takes
place at a funeral home. Unlike the last stanza, where it all started to make sense, this
stanza gets confusing. Confusion is shown in lines 6,7 and 8, like a drum,/kept
beating-beating-till I thought.my mind was going numb. Besides showing confusion, this
shows repetition between beathing-beating and treadin-treading-. This time though, at the
end of the stanza instead of making sense, the speakers' mind is going numb. The
speakers' thought process is dead, they are not thinking anymore. In the third stanza the
voices start to take over by opening a box. Shown in lines9 through 11, and then I heard
them lift a box/and creak across my soul/with those same boots of lead. This box is
opened and all the problems and troubles lingering inside are released upon the speaker
like boots of lead weighin the speaker down. These problems build up and the space began
to toll. Portraying suicidal thoughts, the speaker can't take anymore and it's all
beginning to toll, meaning that it is coming close to the end. The upbringing of the soul
in line 10 gives a sense of spirituality to the poem, the meaning of these words reflect
the concepts of life and death. During the duration of the fourth stanza, the speaker now
hears voices calling to him. This is where the switch from life to death occurs. The line
as all the heavens were a bell(13), is very interesting. What are most bell used for? A
church bell rings during time change, a school bell rings when it's time to change class.
The us of bell in this line is to show the exit from earth and the entrance into heaven.
THe speaker hears these bells signifying change in the line and I and silence, some
strange race/wrecked, solitary here-. these lines tell us that the speaker finally
relaxes. and I and silence reflects the relaxation and relief of the pressures and pain.
The line sme strange race, wrecked descibes the exiting of life into death, the hman race
is wrecked. Then all is peaceful, solitary, here-,here being heaven. In the last stanza
the solitude breaks, and all that was once good is dropping as if this was deck made of
wood containg many planks, the 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 fomr heavens and continues
dropping. The emphasis (repitition) on dropping down is the 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 ens. the words chosen for the line at every plunge
show the repetition of falling, restarting hte circle of life. The line and finishe
knowing-the- describes reincarnation. Once the speaker lands back on earth, the speaker
starts a new life. The word finished is emphasized like other words throuhout the poem,
but the us of finished at the end of this poem fits accordingly. It also fits well at the
end of this poem because not only is the poem over but it also signifies the end of life
and the start of a new one. The lines seperating then at the very end make it seem as
though the words are fading away as did the thoughts of the speaker from the past. 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. The vicious cycle of life will always continue just as it is
reflected in the poem.