I Felt a Funeral in My Brain by Emily Dickinson Analysis

When people die, their loved ones organize funerals. A funeral is a ceremonial event that has rules and order. In a funeral, people are normally in a sad mood since they are mourning. The somber mood in a funeral calls for solemn procedures and regulations (Timbol and Caballero 420). In the poem I Felt a Funeral in my Brain, Emily Dickinson, the poet, employs the metaphor of a feeling to communicate the idea of the irrationality associated with the proceedings of a funeral. The poet presents an ironically chaotic environment and loss of self consciousness that potentially terrify the reader. The speaker in the poem claims to feel, rather than witness a funeral. Almost every person has ever been to a funeral, witnessed or heard about it. However, the first line makes the reader wonder how it is like to feel a funeral. The only feeling that one can experience in a funeral is grief, but not the funeral itself, since it is only an event.

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The speaker begins by saying that she felt a funeral in their brain. This is rather scaring. The speaker seems to be very keen and hears everything that happens in an imaginary funeral. Apart from hearing what is happening in the funeral, the speaker feels it; although she cannot see it. She says I felt a funeral. The speaker goes on to explicitly describe the feelings and sounds they experience in the funeral. Soon, the reader becomes aware, albeit vaguely, that this is not the usual feeling of grief and loss, but a personal feeling. The poet begins the words brain and mourners with capital letters as if they were proper nouns. This seems to highlight the idea that the brain is separate from the speaker and the capitalization of the first letter of the word Mourners implies that the group is one of the most important parts of the funeral. The speaker sums up the first stanza by claiming that the mourners tread to and fro, and at the impulse, thinks that she is about to understand what is happening to her: it seemed/That sense was breaking through. This means that the speaker is as terrified as the reader.

As the reader moves to the second stanza, the terrifying situation seems to gradually come to an end. The first line of this stanza declares that every person gets seated for the burial, and the reader can now relax. However, before they can settle down and enjoy the serene environment created by this statement, the speaker confronts them with the chaotic aspect of an incessant drum-beating that she hears rolling in her mind. The poet begins the words service, drum, mind and numb with capital letters for a certain purpose. Although they are neither proper nouns nor situated at the beginning of lines, the words drum and service begin with capital letters as a way of personifying them to imply that just like the funeral service, the drum is the one that brings the sad news of death and loss. The mind is capitalized to imply its separation from the personas consciousness while numb is capitalized to signify that the persona is no longer in their real senses. The speaker emphasizes that the service kept beating like a drum until she thought that her Mind was going Numb. As this stanza comes to a close, it is clear that the speaker is being controlled by a force beyond herself.

As the third stanza opens, the focus is still on the speakers ability to feel and hear. She begins by saying that she heard them lift a Box. The capitalization of Box is capitalized to imply that this is not a commonplace box. Before the reader can digest this aspect of a box, the speaker adds that there is a creak across my Soul. This makes the reader suspect that the funeral the speaker is feeling and hearing could be her own. It explains why this speaker cannot physically witness the funeral; but can only feel and hear it, and is not fully conscious of what is happening in their surroundings. She claims to feel the box being lifted and hears the Boots of Lead as they carry her to the grave. The reader now clearly understands that the speaker is the one describing her own funeral. The words boots and lead are begun with capital letters to signify their importance in communicating the fact that the speaker is being carried since she cannot walk herself to the grave. As the stanza ends, the speaker declares that she has already begun moving through space as Space began to toll. This implies that although she can feel and hear what is happening on the ground, she cannot see anything since she has already started her journey to her final destination: the place of the dead. The reader is now certain that the speaker is already dead and is only giving an account of her funeral.

In the fourth stanza, the speaker hints that she is now in a new world. She talks of heaven being a bell. This implies that there is a bell in heaven, ringing to welcome her. Still, she cannot see but can hear the bell. She says that she is only an Ear. The words bell and ear begin with capital letters perhaps to signify what the speaker has become and the being that is calling unto her respectively. The speaker then seems to realize that she is no longer a human but a strange being, belonging to some strange Race. The speaker is engulfed in silence; perhaps as she wonders what could have happened for her to change into such a strange being. The word silence is begun with a capital letter so as to emphasize on the fact that this silence is so loud that the speaker does not get a chance to say anything. As this stanza ends, the speaker seems to painfully discover that she is Wrecked and solitary. This means that she is alone and destroyed. She is frustrated since she is no longer the normal human being that she was. She is now a strange being in a strange place. The reader begins to identify with the loneliness that the speaker must have felt. By the end of this stanza, there is no doubt that the speker is now fully conscious of the new environment that she is in. It is an environment that she does not like due to the loneliness that it brings upon her.

In the last stanza, the speaker reveals how she has no choice but to finally accept that she is dead. She begins by claiming that a plank in Reason broke. This means that one of the coffins boards broke and the speaker dropped down, and down / And hit a World, at every plunge. The poet begins the word reason with a capital letter as a way of personifying it since it is the one that seems to have given the speaker a breakthrough. It makes the speaker become fully conscious of what is happening. As she plunges to her last resting place, the speaker cannot help but wonder in panic and confusion, why this is happening to her. Finally, as she is lowered to the bottom of her grave, it dawns on her that she is dead. The word and is repeated in every line in this stanza to emphasize on the sequence of events that make the speaker realize that she has to accept the fact that she is no more. This repetition also helps the reader to accept this reality.

In conclusion, Emily Dickinson succeeds in communicating the terrifying yet interesting message that keeps the reader glued to the poem throughout. By the time the poem ends, it is clear to the reader that the funeral that the speaker felt in her brain was hers. She could only hear and feel the funeral since she was already silent and blind in death. The reader is terrified as they read the speakers description of her own death. Nevertheless, the poet manages to hold the attention of the reader despite the horror associated with the events in the poem.

Works cited

Dickinson, Emily. "I Felt a Funeral in My Brain." Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Boston: Little, Brown & Co (1960).

Timbol, M. P. F., and R. T. Caballero. "Culture and Tradition toward Funeral Services: Creation of a Brand Loyalty Model in the Philippines." International Journal of Social Sciences and Entrepreneurship 1.9 (2014): 418-430.