Emily Dickinson's Poems
Wordsworth's definition of poetry "Powerful emotion recollected in tranquility" seems not to apply to this dark and strange poem "I felt a funeral in my brain." The poem recollect strong emotions, however tranquility seems to be the opposite of Emily Dickinson's intentions of horror and grimness. A spiritual crisis is present but with the absence of the crisis's nature, portraying an even more mysterious atmosphere. Although the poem illustrates the orderly events of a funeral, the speaker becomes the funeral, and the events following take on "psychological significance" and a poetic expression of the separation of body and spirit. The poem is an interesting complex description of the association between the human mind, body, and soul during a time of mental suffering. The poem's possible meaning is concern or madness, but if it's about anything it explains the feeling of nothingness and that nothing in life can be ultimately understood. Whether its madness or the presence of death that opens up the speaker's mind, they finally realize that they are utterly alone but totally free.The poem describes a funeral in which the speaker is in attendance. Dickinson uses the funeral as a metaphor to represent a sense that a part of
This eventually leads to minds madness that will never be broken as time is inclusive. One side of the speaker's split self, examines his situation and perceives himself as "wrecked, solitary. The numbness the speaker's mind is feeling is a separation from the body. By the end of the poem, the mind is completely separated from the world by death and result in madness. " While those around him attempt to bring the speaker back to the world, his mind goes numb, and he is unable to be lifted from the darkness in which he is buried. "Mourners to and fro / Kept treading-treading - till it seemed that sense was breaking through. the speaker is dying and becoming mad. The last line of the second stanza says, "My Mind was going numb-". Words like "bell" in the fourth stanza create the imagery of a bell tolling in the advance of a funeral march. This poem forces mankind to ask, what they know, how we know it, and whether life and death are concepts that are comprehendible. A person's body lives and then dies, but a person's mind goes from sane to madness. " This descent into madness alienates the speaker from the world, making him a member of "some strange race. And because the separation did not come willingly by the mind, it becomes frustrated which leads to eventual madness. Along with the changing mood, the diction is very important in creating a parallel scene between the funeral procession and the speaker's own procession of madness. The speaker is subjected to a world in which all meaning has been withdrawn, and the speaker is free to reach any conclusion he wish.
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