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I felt a funeral in my brain

Time for more laughs with Emily Dickinson!. I felt a funeral in my brain. 21 st January 2014. I felt a Funeral, in my Brain, And Mourners to and fro Kept treading – treading – till it seemed That Sense was breaking through –  And when they all were seated, A Service, like a Drum – 

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I felt a funeral in my brain

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  1. Time for more laughs with Emily Dickinson! I felt a funeral in my brain 21st January 2014

  2. I felt a Funeral, in my Brain, And Mourners to and fro Kept treading – treading – till it seemed That Sense was breaking through –  And when they all were seated, A Service, like a Drum –  Kept beating – beating – till I thought My Mind was going numb –  And then I heard them lift a Box And creak across my Soul With those same Boots of Lead, again, Then Space – began to toll, As all the Heavens were a Bell, And Being, but an Ear, And I, and Silence, some strange Race Wrecked, solitary, here –  And then a Plank in Reason, broke, And I dropped down, and down –  And hit a World, at every plunge, And Finished knowing – then – 

  3. This poem was written in 1862. That year Dickinson wrote 366 poems! We don’t know what caused this burst of creativity. Thomas Wentworth Higginson, one of the few people who appreciated her poetry in her lifetime, wrote after visiting Dickinson: "I never was with any one who drained my nerve power so much. Without touching her, she drew from me. I am glad not to live near her“. It seems that it is not just a modern readership who find her very intense.

  4. This is not a simile – to her the funeral is real. Similarly, it is not just in her head but lodged into her brain, suggesting a real physical sensation I felt a Funeral, in my Brain, And Mourners to and fro Kept treading – treading – till it seemed That Sense was breaking through –  The mourners seem aimless The repetition of ‘treading’ suggests a thumping in her head – perhaps suggesting illness?? It becomes so realistic she feels it with all of her senses.

  5. The treading of the first stanza is replaced by beating – more vibrant? Uncomfortable? The mourners sit down and the funeral begins. However, we have no details – it seems like a beat to her. And when they all were seated, A Service, like a Drum –  Kept beating – beating – till I thought My Mind was going numb –  The image of a drum is unusual – it ties in more to the feeling than the funeral service. Brain is replaced by mind – the ‘intellectual’ taking over from the ‘physical’? It has gone on so long her senses are now numbed.

  6. From ‘brain’ to ‘mind’ to ‘soul’…are we now entering the spiritual? Her coffin – but what is in it? What does this suggest about her soul? And then I heard them lift a Box And creak across my Soul With those same Boots of Lead, again, Then Space – began to toll, Does she recognise these boots? If so, why? Is it just the thumping in her head? Emptiness – like the bell at a funeral – echoes in her head. Almost synaesthetic.

  7. We’ve moved from the funeral and ‘the space’ into the Heavens. They now seem to be echoing with the sound of the bell. Our existence – being – absorbs the sound as an ear takes in sound that surrounds it. As all the Heavens were a Bell, And Being, but an Ear, And I, and Silence, some strange Race Wrecked, solitary, here –  Silence seems to be personified. She is linking herself with Silence – they are both passive and empty. They seem to both be stranded in this void.

  8. The floor seems to break underneath her. The ‘plank’ ties into the creaking floor we have seem earlier. Could this be like planks over a grave? Is this suggesting her sanity? Do we feel she is doubting her own sense or rationality? And then a Plank in Reason, broke, And I dropped down, and down –  And hit a World, at every plunge, And Finished knowing – then –  The bottom certainly seems to have dropped out of her world. Has her ‘knowing’ (understanding?) now ended as she has lost that rationality? Why the ‘then –’ at the end? Does this tie into this loss of sense? It loses the rhyme that has been fixed throughout the poem. As she falls she seems to be hit by ‘a world’ – not necessarily ours. Is it suggesting that she has lost reason (gone mad?) and is now faced with irrational ideas/worlds?

  9. So what on earth is going on? • She may be falling into despair. • It could be a descent into madness • It could be a representation of a funeral through the mind of a dead person(?!) • It could be a loss of consciousness.

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