Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

"I felt a Funeral, in my Brain" is a poem by Emily Dickinson, an American poet who lived from 1830 to 1886. The poem was first published posthumously in 1896.

The poem describes a personal experience of the speaker as they feel a funeral procession inside their own mind. The poem begins with the speaker feeling a funeral happening within their brain, and mourners treading to and fro until the sense of the speaker's mind seems to be breaking through.The poem then goes on to describe the beating of a drum during the service which makes the speaker feel like their mind is going numb. The speaker hears the sound of boots lifting a box, which represents the sound of a coffin being lifted, and creaking across their soul. Then space begins to toll, as if the heavens were a bell, and the speaker and silence are the only ones left, wrecked and solitary.

The poem explores themes of death, loss, and the deterioration of the mind. The image of the funeral procession happening inside the speaker's mind suggests a sense of loss or the end of something important. The beating of the drum and the sound of the boots are ominous and haunting, emphasizing the weight of the speaker's experience. The poem also suggests a sense of isolation and loneliness, as the speaker feels wrecked and solitary in the aftermath of the funeral. The poem is often interpreted as an expression of the speaker's own mental state, and the experience of losing control over their own mind.

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