"I Felt a Funeral, In My Brain" - Analysis

Emily Dickinson was known for writing a great deal of poetry on the subject of mortality, and this poem is no exception. "I Felt a Funeral, In My Brain" was a poem that was a large metaphor. The poem was not a simile because it did not use words such as "like" or "as" to compare the funeral in her brain. The funeral was in her brain. Dickinson used many metaphors throughout her poem to discus the funeral in her brain. Many of her metaphors came when describing the difference between her actual self and her intangible self. In the first line of the poem, Dickinson says "I felt a funeral, in my brain" (Dickinson). She uses a metaphor to refer to her physical self, such as her brain, but in line 8 she uses the term "mind," which refers to an intangible part of her body. The mind is not a physical thing that can be grabbed, or be "numb" (Dickinson).

There are many different ways to interpret the speaker of the poem. It can be assumed that the speaker is going through a very traumatic event in their life. The funeral going on in her head was very traumatic for the speaker, and she did not like it at all. The poem could be the metaphor for the traumatic event. It is also possible that the speaker just has a really bad headache and wanted to write about it. The speaker, assumed to be Dickinson, was not a social person, so she probably did not appreciate being around all the people at the "funeral" in her mind. The speaker begins the poem at a funeral in her brain, and as the poem progresses, they end up passing through a wood floor, through the speakers soul. At the end of the journey, the speaker is found to be alone with silence as her only companion.

Many of Dickinson's poems are on the subject of mortality. She was obviously very afraid of death, or maybe she was very curious about what would happen to her after hear death. Her poetry created a scenario to explain life after death in a way that could ease her fear, such as depicting a small funeral in her head, with little people carrying the casket with "lead boots" (Dickinson). Because Dickinson was known for creating scenarios such as the one in this poem, many of her poems can be described almost as dreams. They obviously cannot literally happen, and the setting of the poem shifts so rapidly. Her poem could have ended with the speaker waking up, or was the speaker even alive? This poem is about a funeral, but it described the event "like a drum" (Dickinson). Drums are seldom used in church-related music. The fact that the image is reiterated through out the poem is a contradiction to normal funeral proceedings. The beating of the drum could be an image for a life event that the speaker wanted to bury, but could not forget.

Dickinson, Emily. "I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain (280)- Poets.org - Poetry, Poems, Bios & More." Poets.org. The Academy of American Poets. Web. 03 Apr. 2012. <http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15391>.