Emily Dickinson - I felt a Funeral, in my Brain Flashcards
What is the poem about
An evocative description of what is likely to be nervous breakdown
The funeral metaphor conveys her intense psychological suffering and trauma
Different layers of the experience
Stanza and experience
1 = physical “felt” 2 = psychological “mind” 3 = spiritual “soul” 4 = spiritual “heavens” 5 = reason “reason”
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A sense of panic and fear created
They are invading her personal space
Mourners to and fro Kept treading - treading
Quote
She’s about to understand and get a glimmer of reason
sense was breaking through
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The sound of the drum is overbearing thoughts of the sound of her beating heart
A Service, like a Drum - kept beating - beating - till I thought my mind was going numb -
How is the poem lucid
The conventions of funerals are familiar and rational
Why is there an emphasis on sound
In the coffin all other senses are taken away so hearing is heightened
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Emphasis on hearing
And then I heard then lift a Box
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Falling beginning
Church bells signalling burial
Then Space - began to toll
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She is existing even only with sense of sound
She’s become passive and no longer participating
And Being, but an Ear
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She finally breaks through reason and falls
As she falls she meets irrational worlds and moves from the living world to the dead world
And then a Plank in Reason, broke
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She has reached a resting position as the fall is finished
There is no more maniac shifting of states
The ending is sudden and open
And Finished knowing - then -
What two things could the “then -“ mean?
She’s 1) dead (metaphor) and 2) finished her nervous breakdown (actual)
1) if she’s dead it leaves things unfinished and unanswered, makes us wonder what happens after death - her thoughts and wonders
2) if she’s finished her nervous breakdown she’s come to her senses and knows herself a little better after the trauma
