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Post by nikymbaw on Feb 10, 2018 23:01:07 GMT -6
When I initially read Emily Dickinson's 'I felt a Funeral, in my Brain' I was really thrown off by the odd rhyme scheme and so it took me a minute to really understand what was gong on within the poem itself. I believe that the speaker is dead, or at the very least has had a part of them killed. The poem itself covers the slow and somber death going on to talk about the "...Mourners to and fro" and how they're "treading" aimlessly as most funeral goers do until they are seated. The speaker can hear and feel "...them lift a Box" that has a "...creak" within the speakers soul itself. Out of all the lines in the poem, however, none of them stand out to me as much as the lines "That Sense was breaking through" and "My mind was going numb". These lines to me imply that the speaker's sense of self is what died, and that they're essentially experiencing this lost of consciousness and reason, which is causing them to fall apart. They feel "wrecked, solitary" almost unable to comprehend what's going on, they feel that they are "...some strange race" a feeling of isolation and fear. Overall it gives the poem a morose tone, as both reader and speaker are witnessing solemn and desolate death that a person can help but feel for.
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Post by jordan on Feb 11, 2018 16:24:11 GMT -6
I agree. I think the speaker is dead and aware that she's at her funeral. I think the odd rhyme scheme has to do with her being aware that she is dead because her mind is still thinking thoughts at random. However I think that "That Sense" might be death because a sense is a feeling of some kind. Since the speaker is at her funeral dead, but still mentally conscious, "That Sense" might that sense of death overcoming her mind, which would explain her mind "going numb". The poem's sudden ending would signify the speaker's mind dying. Personifying "Silence", the speaker I think feels out of place even in death and silence is the only thing around as she's being moved. I don't think the speaker is scared, but rather unbothered and accepting towards the fact that she's dying. I do agree the tone is morose and gloomy.
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taj
New Member
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Post by taj on Feb 13, 2018 19:14:52 GMT -6
"I felt a funeral in my Brain" probably details the process of descending into madness. Dickinson first hints this when she states that "sense was breaking through". This means that, much like a wooden floor, her sense of reason was slipping from her grasp in this rather strange "funeral" for her brain. Also, the brain, being the organ most associated with intelligent thought and reasoning, is from the very start proclaimed to be "dead". This is further supported from the "service, like a drum" that implies that rather than a funeral that would commonly be expected, this funeral is full of panic and the unexpected, all symptoms of madness. At the burial of her brain, Dickinson then describes the heavens being a bell, tolling along with space. Existence being an ear implies that all the metaphysical concepts of life can only be heard, not understood. This goes well with the "plank in Reason" breaking as it symbolizes the final plunge into an instinctual madness. Dickinson finishes knowing at the end of the poem, implying that she cannot "know" anymore only "be". Madness has in a sense taken all her understanding and tossed them away for an endless fall into the abyss of endless possibility.
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Post by andrea on Feb 15, 2018 12:24:06 GMT -6
In Emily Dickenson's I Felt A Funeral in My Brain, the author talks about her awareness of the fact that she is slowly losing her mind. She does through the use of imagery, in which she describes a funeral that is taking place within her brain. In this instance, her sanity is the who has died while her other senses and emotions, such as sense or silence, are the mourners that're attending the funeral. She also uses various metaphors to emphasize the this imagery, such as the characterization of her heart as a drum. The comparison between her heart and a drum is most likely meant to symbolize that her heart is beating rapidly. At the end of the poem when she writes, "And then a Plank in Reason, broke...", it creates the imagery of a plank holding up her casket breaking and her body hitting the ground. This imagery can also be interpreted as her sanity, or reason, giving out and fully emerging her in insanity. Overall, this entire poem is meant to explain Dickenson's quick descend to insanity.
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Post by akmaples on Feb 15, 2018 12:26:18 GMT -6
In Emily Dickinson's 'I felt a Funeral, in my Brain', I believe the speaker is struggling with her consciousness and mental wellness and is paralleling this to a “funeral” being in her brain. Therefore, I agree with Taj when he says that poem is showing “the process of descending into madness.” The madness, possibly being the speaker’s mental stability slowing withering away. The funeral that the speaker is describing in detail could be for her mental stability. The speaker describes her descend as her mind going numb, meaning she can’t think about things and make judgement like a normal person. The speaker says, “And then I heard them lift a box and creak across my Soul.” The “them” could be her mind, but the speaker could be referring to her mind as a plural object because of how it has so much authority over everything she does and says, without it, she’s a vegetable.
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