i felt a funeral in my brain

Question 1

what do “Felt” and “Brain” suggest

Answer 1

the experience is intense and physical

Question 2

what is the allegorical description

Answer 2

the feeling that the normal function of her mind has ended
funeral in the brain is a metaphor for the death of her mind

Question 3

what does the allegory of the funeral attempt to do

Answer 3

extériorise and give a temporal structure to what is in fact internal and simultaneous

Question 4

what does the speaker alienating herself from her feelings do

Answer 4

she can freely express her thoughts w/o addressing the fact that these thoughts are the own torment of her mind
asked the freedom to present what tortures her the most without granting permission to enter the privacy of her own feelings

Question 5

without the systematic articulate ceremony of funeral rites..

Answer 5

a reader may have no idea what the speaker is describing and the poem would lack coherence and unity
the reader may not be able to fully apprehend the experiential anguish of the process

Question 6

what has dramatizing what occurred with herself through this allegory done

Answer 6

give it a clarity that a mere straightforward desc of the descent into madness could not

Question 7

why does speaker use familiar words and a familiar situation

Answer 7

to dramatize the loss of her mind so that it’s an explanation that can be understood by those who haven’t experienced it

Question 8

she’s able to capitalize on the use of this allergory in the desc of..

Answer 8

the breaking of the plank that holds her coffin- a horrifying thought to anyone- as a mean of dramatizing the horror of her personal descent

Question 9

it is a nostalgic retrospective

Answer 9

it’s terrifying in its loneliness and her isolation from others yet represented without a feeling of terror

Question 10

she chooses to show there was a deterioration that led to the loss of herself

Answer 10

presenting it as a loss of life through the means of a funeral. it’s the loss of a person or “life” in a metaphorical sense

Question 11

by describing the funeral is if it were her own

Answer 11

the vision of her, alone in her coffin knowing fully well that this is something most people shudder to think about further compounds the sense of her loneliness & isolation

Question 12

desperation from self is also illustrated

Answer 12

as she presents the events of the funeral- not how she feels at the funeral, but instead details of the events of the funeral. she shows them in a matter of fact manner

Question 13

mourners are portrayed as faceless, devoid of feeling & emotion

Answer 13

they are just beings who are there, unfeeling.

Question 14

no individual is mentioned, no sentence is uttered,

Answer 14

•no mourning attire us described. no sounds of sadness or muffled cries, no eulogy, it’s as if the person doesn’t exist
•the illustration is one of total isolation from the real world & more importantly from any sort of feelings by people about her

Question 15

abolishes traditional boundary between

Answer 15

experience of the mind and those of the body. “Treading-“ emphasizes physicality

Question 16

“Wrecked, solitary here-“ , starling immediacy to the experience.

Answer 16

reason was the faculty that could help make sense of the experience however it didn’t hold up “And then a Plank in Reason, broke,” she undergoes new sensation of falling, plunging deeper down to new levels/worlds

Question 17

her thought and knowledge are lost in the fall

Answer 17

deterioration of her mind and sense of being

Question 18

lines drone on

Answer 18

tone of funeral procession. somber tone with underlying feeling of desperation, one who’s trapped emotional and figuratively& can’t escape

Question 19

solitary feeling of isolation on all levels both physical and emotional

Answer 19

the structure monotony of the funeral service shows a metaphorical relationship in more detail, creating a parallel to let us know that this process of a progressive loss of her mind is as natural as progression from life to death

Question 20

plank breaking

Answer 20

pain, final indignity depriving person of leaving the world ina respectable manner

Question 21

“hit a World, at every plunge,”

Answer 21

accentuated her frantic efforts to survive, not giving up until there was nothing left, no other worlds to try

Question 22

capitalization of “Funeral” and “Brain” signify what

Answer 22

•indicate that they’re linked

Question 23

what does poem describe

Answer 23

• a funeral service, instead of being real, it shows us her mental state through description of a “Funeral in (her) Brain”

Question 24

“Mourners” are at funeral too,

Answer 24

something has died within speaker

Question 25

are we given concrete cause for this feeling

Answer 25

•not given concrete cause for feeling of longing and mourning, leaving us in the dark

Question 26

proceedings continue, what do the mourners do

Answer 26

•carry a “Box” (maybe containing speakers sanity) through the speaker

Question 27

never told what the box contains, maybe suggests that

Answer 27

•this feeling can feel like a funeral for an unknown person, creating feelings if anonymity and confusion

Question 28

dashes in this poem contribute to what

Answer 28

•creating a sense of disorientation and also add to the ambiguity of prom and confusion the poet and reader have regarding this melancholic feeling

Question 29

“A Service, like a Drum - / Kept beating - beating -“
“Kept treading - treading -•

Answer 29

•dashes between beating and impies the actions are repetitive and oppressive

Question 30

what does this oprrssion result in

Answer 30

•something snapping in the dishes: “then a plank in Reason, broke”
•speaker engulfed in confusing unknown abyss as they drop “down and down”

Question 31

speaker “hit a World, at every plunge,” / And Finished knowing - then -“

Answer 31

“Finished” suggests closure, but line ends with a dash contradicting this
•reader left confused as to what speaker will say and we’re intrigued to know more

Question 32

never find out what speaker will say

Answer 32

•seems as if they themself don’t know, “ - then -“ may mean speaker has now lost all thought and they’re left in dark also as a cause of the death of their sanity/mind