I felt a Funeral, in my Brain, (340) Traces the descent into madness.

Speaker experiences the loss of self in the

chaos of the unconscious.
Uses metaphor of a funeral to represent the
speakers sense that part of her is dying. She
feels her reason is being overwhelmed by the
irrationality of the unconscious.
Order of a funeral contrasts ironically with the
lack of control and loss of rationality that
threaten the speaker.
Enjambment throughout reflects the scattered
nature of her conscious/unconscious brains.
Funeral marks passage from a state of life to
death, which parallels the speakers passing
from a state of sanity to insanity.
Microcosm for society evils of her mind as
the evils of society, that are destroying her and
society.
The theme of the poem is twofold- it describes
a funeral and all that make it a very
traditional, accepted event. The lines tend to
drone on which gives it the tone of a funeral
procession. Initially the least important thing
seems to be the person who has died- the
formality of the process is what matters. It has
a sombre tone with an underlying feeling of
desperation of one who is trapped emotionally
and figuratively and cannot escape, cannot
find any help. It has a solitary feeling of
isolation on all levels, both physical and
emotional.
The structure in which the events are
portrayed has a beginning: the arrival of the
mourners, a middle: they are then seated for
the funeral service and the ringing of the bells,
and the end: the burial at the cemetery. This
shows a metaphorical relationship in more
detail, creating a parallel to let us know that
this process of a progressive loss of her mind
just as natural as she views the natural
progression of life into death. This illustrates
that it was, indeed a process, not a cataclysmic
moment when everything changed.
The meter of the poem is in the classic ballad
meter style of Dickinson, and gives the poem
a somber tone. It adds to the message of the
poem with it rhythmic tone similar to that of a
funeral dirge. Here the ABCB rhyme scheme
carries us through the poem until the use of
slant rhyme wakes us up in the last stanza:
In the first stanza Dickinson begins to describe this
slow death of her mind when she says, "Mourners to
and fro kept treading-treading till it seemed that sense
was giving way." The mourners Dickinson speaks of
seem to signify her thoughts and these thoughts are
passing back and forth in her mind, "till it seemed that
sense was giving way", or all reason was beginning to
fail.
I felt a Funeral, in my Brain, She felt a Funeral in her Brain, and both were
capitalized, alerting us to the thought that both
the funeral and her brain are equally
important, and tied to each other. In the
following line, the Mourners are awarded
equal importance, and as the speaker will go
on to describe, they contributed to the "death"
of her brain in their unrelenting assault on her
through the use of repetition.
Feeling of the funeral to begin, however no
feeling on the part of the mourners no
sounds of sadness, emotion, eulogy or
discussion of loss. Therefore she is
completely isolated, and represent as
distanced form the world.
Past tense already gone, genuine feeling that
she has lost sanity and there is no return.
And Mourners to and fro Mourners metaphor for the dying thoughts
in her brain. Personifies her thoughts. Later
seated.
To and fro seem scattered, consistent with a
loss of rationality as she loses her mind.
Kept treading - treading - till it seemed Treading, treading rhythm, connotes a sort
of heaviness. Thoughts are weighing her
down.
Connotations of the funeral march. Further
eroding her thoughts, deeper and deeper into
the unconscious, away from sanity and reason.
The choice of syntax in this poem is used to
underline the sense of motion and alliteration
is used through use of the repetition of the
same words:
This is used to create a rhythm thorough
repetition used for an auditory imagery to
create the feeling of a march that just drones
on and on, like the funeral dirge which has
become her existence. All three stress negative
actions and have serious consequences,
strengthening the sombre tone of the poem.
They are also used to drive home the major
points in the loss of her mind, and the
unceasing spiral toward insanity. There is
kinaesthesia in the descriptions of "Kept
treading-treading-till it seemed" (3) as well as
in "Kept beating-beating-till I thought" (7) and
"And I dropped down, and down-(18), with
each double use of the word appealing to the
kinaesthetic sense of motion, so that we could
almost feel the rhythm of the action. NOTE
also line 7, 18
That Sense was breaking through - Sense capitalization is far away, and
addressing it formally.
In the second stanza Dickinson continues to
describe this slow deterioration of her mind
when she says, "And when they all were
seated, a service like a drum-kept beating-
beating till I thought my mind was going
numb. The ceremony for the death of her mind
has now begun, and the "beating-beating"
seems to emphasize these thoughts that
continue to destroy what is left of her sanity.
She seems to have had a rising irritation with
people throughout the course of the poem. The
image is one of being surrounded by people
but never interacting with them, either in
feeling or in action, except when they
perpetrate unpleasant actions that hurt her to
the core. This presents an additional statement
on the lack of feeling of people as they
contribute to her demise, unknowing and
unfeeling of what they are doing as the follow
the conventional behaviour of her time: to
come to mourn because it is what is done.
Figuratively, the confusion of the mind quiets
and consents to the burial. However this voice
is rhythmic, repetitious and numbing.
And when they all were seated, Seated personification of thoughts as
grounded and firm within her brain. Less
active linked with numbness, and her loss
of self.
A Service, like a Drum - Simile like a drum.
Kept beating - beating - till I thought Repetition of rhythm funeral march.
Beating homonym not only beating of a
drum but also beating down of a person
Present participles elongates.
The "beating" goes on until she can endure no
more and she "goes numb." It implies the
psychological torture of her interaction with
people and how it lost any meaning and just
droned on an on in her mind, tormenting her
in its absence of actual meaning. It was the
psychological beating and the metaphor of
beating like a drum, as well as the abuse that it
felt like.
My mind was going numb - Repetition of n m sounds.

And then I heard them lift a Box Allusion to lifting the coffin from the bier,
where they tore at her very soul as if the
death of her mind was still not the end pain
still prevailed
And creak across my Soul Creak a soft, sound onomatopoeia a
small torment at the essence of her being
just when she thought the suffering was over it
has just begun
With those same Boots of Lead, again, Weighted diction consistent with her thoughts
(heavy lead)
Same continuous torment suffering
embodies a cyclical nature
The boots of lead returns to the hard
intrusiveness of their earlier offenses
Then Space - began to toll, The tolling of the bell slices through her
silence reminds her once again that the
suffering is not over signifies a new era
/form of suffering
This notion is further emphasized through the
enjambment with the next stanza (not just
within the sentence)
Stanzas 4 + 5 changes to a jagged meter which
further stresses the chaos towards the end for
the speaker
The rhythm that has keep us comforted all
along in the natural order of things and how
death Is just a matter of fact part of life
The jagged meter symbolizes the speakers
deterioration of her mind
As all the Heavens were a Bell, The use of the sound of the "Bell" is auditory
imagery, reminiscent of the sadness when the
"bell tolls" signalling the end- of a funeral, or
of life. She instead chooses the image of
herself, sitting in "Silence", then the visual
imagery of some strange Race"
And Being, but an Ear, Synecdoche (representing the whole) ear to
human) dramatizes the point by reducing
people to being described as an ear
illustrates that they are made up of what they
hear
Superficial only what they hear on the
surface
And I, and Silence, some strange Race, Further separates herself form others race
vs. ears
Emphasizes her loneliness, with the idea that
people of different races at that time would
have been not only different but probably
would not have related to each other she is
not able to relate to others
The situation is unchangeable she not only
isolates and separates herself, but the
implication that closeness with them is not
even possible
The "Silence" can also be another reference to
her isolation with its implication of separation
from the rest of the world. While they are
described as an " Ear" she is trapped alone in
silence. This would make her (the silent one)
useless to everyone else (the Ear). Further, the
implication is that she does not need
communication with others, which the "Ears"
seem to rely on, and it is something that they
share from which she is excluded.
Wrecked, solitary, here - She dramatizes her isolation by describing
herself and the other race as Wrecked
solitary, here- tells us there is no hope for
her and the others that they are broken and
alone
In the last stanza, as the coffin is being lowered to the
ground, Dickinson describes the final result of the
death of her mind
She portrays dying on different worlds to try
and find the right world and be able to find
herself
This illustrates that she continues to try to
save herself at every possible opportunity
self serving
By using slant rhyme instead of the exact
rhyme for the final paragraph she juxtaposes
the ordinary cadence of the poem and startles
us to make us understand that something
extraordinary has happened.
And then a Plank in Reason, broke, As shes being lowered into the ground, the bottom
suddenly breaks.
The image of "And then a Plank in Reason,
broke," gives us a dreadful vision- a coffin,
awaiting its solemn trip into the grave is
instead plunged into the hole in the ground
when the plank breaks. This provides a vision
of pain, or a final indignity, depriving the
person of leaving the world in a respectable
manner. Perhaps the implication of society
delivering the final blow in "dropping" her,
allowing her to "plunge" into her grave. A
final note that people not only pushed her over
the edge, but gave no regard for her human
dignity in letting her fall until the very end of
understanding. This further portrays how long
this descent took, that it was not in a brief
instant, but a long, laborious process in which
she "dropped down and down".
And I dropped down, and down - Polysyndeton, repetition of and gives
further rhythm to the descent used to
emphasize the dropping and subsequent and
hit a world at every plunge as you can almost
hear her body as it is further tormented
Once more, action is repeated for emphasis,
taking her the final step, metaphorically, the
lowering of her coffin into the grave- a
metaphor for the end of life,
And hit a World, at every plunge, She does not merely sinks into the abyss, or
drop into the grave, but suffers all the way
down. The implication is that there was pain at
every attempt, as she "hit a World-at every
plunge," rather than just passing worlds on her
way down, instead she hit each one.
Paula Bennet describes this plunge's religious
implication by stating, "There is neither a
sustaining God nor a sustaining scaffold of
meaning to support her. Like the trapdoor on a
gallows or like the planks supporting a coffin
until it is dropped into the grave, the 'bottom'
drops out of reality." This presents her idea
regarding God and his existence or at least his
role in her life. It further illustrates her
loneliness to show that even God could not
help her.
Further, she accentuates her frantic efforts to
survive, as she "hit a World at every plunge".
Her pain until the final moments is
dramatized, illustrating her will and efforts to
somehow survive, not giving up until there
was nothing left- no other worlds to try.
And Finished knowing - then - Until she had hit every world and still
descended, "Finished knowing -then-" but
then letting us know that perhaps it was not
the end because the stanza ends with a dash,
implying that it is not the end. This could be a
statement about eternal life, that even after
death of a person or even a mind, that they
someone still go on.