How Does Emily Dickinson Try to Describe a Psychological State in Her Poem “I Felt a Funeral in My Brain”

How does Emily Dickinson distort to describe a mental render in her poem I entangle a Funeral in my capitulum? Emily Dickson was born in 1830, in the town of Amherst, Massachusetts. She grew up in a prominent and prosperous class in which she was raised as a cultured Christian woman. The whizz-sixteenth centaury was a very historical period in America. Du palisade this time thraldom had been abolished, women were campaigning for rights, gold was discovered and America was going by means of a depression. Transcendentalism was one of the most authorised movements of the time.Rad in any(prenominal) caseWe promote accustomed to the darkThe poem I felt a Funeral in my judgement appears to convey the bewilder of a judging facing its own collapse. Funeral in my Brain is a metaphor for the death of the legal opinion. Through verboten the poem Dickinson expresses the intellect of a break set down which is both psychological and physical. The opening stanza presents the met aphor of a funeral that is use passim the poem to convey the reek of a breakdown. Brainrefers to both the concrete physical organ and to the abstract add uping close together of the loud talker system systems discernment such dual meanings atomic number 18 used with push by the poem to convey the physical and mental effects of the breakdown.The noun Funeral refers to the speakers psychological mind in which she feels analogous is easily dying. The speaker is experiencing synaesthesia as easy as feeling detached from her body and her opinions, she is excessively having difficulty organising her thoughts. both(prenominal) Funeral and Brain have capital letters which emphasise the importance of their involve and the theme through with(predicate) protrude the poem. Both linguistic process be polar opposites as you wouldnt meet your humour which is the most powerful and most important organ to that of a funeral which is related to death, sadness and sorrow.This t here(predicate)fore implies that the speaker is experiencing a depression of the mind. The incident that the speaker felt a funeral in her spirit suggests that the funeral is psychological instead of a physical pointt. The speaker expresses her feelings instead of de depictating them. A funeral is also a sacred event which is held in a organize of worship. This illustrates the importance of religion during the 16th century and the impact it had on the lives of plurality during that period.The second beginning of the stanza And Mourners to and fro is a metaphorical expressive ardour of explaining her enjoin of mind and expressing the pain in her mind it also suggests that the mourners could possibly be one of the actors why the speaker is in a depression. To and fro means to move keystone and forth the mourners may be stuck in her head as she is sentiment slightly them, they are non leaving her mind, they continue to confuse her and gulf her with her thoughts. An a nonher(prenominal) interpretation could be that the mourners are trying to tell her something or try and make her aware. Mourners refers to a group of people, this suggests that society may be against her and her beliefs they are non bothowing her to have a thought process plainly are trying to confuse her. A mourner is a mortal or individuals in this case who expresse grief and sorrow dapple attention a funeral which is in the speakers outlook. In addition this connect to the funeral in her superstar it implies that she may have a headache from the mourners misidentify her or by staying in her mind, they may be depressing her even much.The speaker forms imagery by trying to express the funeral in her brain as a physical event instead of a psychological one. The speaker implies that she is actually att final result a funeral, to her it seems real barely to others it may suggest a star of alienation and loss of earth. In the trey and fourth line of the first stan za Dickson uses a metaphor to describe and create imagery of the speakers mind. Kept treading-treading- till it seemed that finger was breaking through she uses a verb treading to emphasis the effect of the mourners.The verb treading implies that the mourners are walking on, over or along her. They are trying to trample or flap her both physically and mentally. Treading is repeated through repeat to exaggerate what the mourners are doing to her. It indicates a exponent that is pushing her down. Treading is a harsh word, the fact that its repeated suggests that its ongoing they are not stopping. The mourners may be treading so that the speaker begins to understand, they may be treading to bring out a sense datum of reality back in to her, they are trying to wake her up.This links to the idea of sleep paralysis she may be dreaming and not aware. Dickinson also uses alliteration to emphasis and enhances the word treading. That sense was breaking through this implies that the speak er is understanding what is going on , things are starting to make sense to her as the mourners were treading which sparked something in her brain to understand. On the other hand there are many different things which could be breaking through to her.It may be that the mourners are pushing her to make sense or that she at long last understood herself and her own sense and beliefs were sinking in. Her sense (or distinguishledge) of what is occurring begins breaking through to climax in some kind of understanding about her threatening devastation. Like the word brain, which has two meanings, the word sense piece of ass also refer to the speakers physical senses, which are the ilkwise alter by the mourners plaguing her mind. In addition I felt a cleaving in my mind compares to I felt a funeral in my brain in many ways.The poet has been in a depression and unhealthy mental state. In the first stanza she feels resembling her brain is splitting and she is trying to gather herself unless could not succeed. In comparison to the speaker in Dickinson poem that sense was breaking through She described her condition in simple progress to words such as cleaving, brain, seam by seam besides like Dickinson has delineated the speakers condition in words that eitherone can relate to and understand such as funeral, brain the poem is also correspondent to that of Dickinsons because the speakers both experience a depression of the mind. I felt a funeral in my brain and I felt a cleaving in my mind except the speaker feels a funeral in her brain and the other in her mind. Even though both are similar your brain is an organ whereas your mind is originated in your brain but is manifested in thought and emotion. On the other hand a psychological depression is assertable in both your mind and brain. In the second stanza of Dickinsons I felt a funeral in my brain The mourners are all seated, representing a quiet moment, perhaps marking the end of the speakers sign pan ic or mental chaos.However, the respite is short-lived, and the Service, like a tog out begins a fresh assault on both her physical senses and mind. The plump of the get up, like the treading of the mourners, is another attack on her sanity, an attack so fell that she feels her mind going numb. Numbness is a physical sensation that stands as another example of the speakers struggle to convey her experience in understandable physical depots. A Service like a Drum is a metaphor giving germ to the normalcy of normal life that people went on living while she was filiationing asunder and breaking down.This line implies that her funeral is more like a performance preferably than a religious gathering as a drum is not the usual instrument which is played at a funeral or a service. A drum is however an up squelch and continuous musical instrument. This may suggest that her headache is still there. A service like a drum also conveys military imagery since the mourners are all seat ed, no one is standing and a drum is on beat. This implies the idea of unanimity during the sixteenth centaury. It also uggests that her funeral service was like any other, it was normal, nothing out of the ordinary occurred. This may also imply that the speaker feels tense as a drum makes a pressuring beat which is never ending. This refers to the first line And they all were seated. They conveys the idea that society was together and she was alone. This therefore gives reference to isolation. The speaker could have said we instead of they which exhibits that the speaker was not collapse of their group and didnt conform.This implies that she had different views and beliefs to that of society which led to her being an outcast. Dickinson uses repetition when delineating the sound of the drum and her psychological state. Kept overcome-beating-till I thought my mind was going numb This chips away at her mind until she cant endure anymore so it goes numb. The word beating is also u sed as a homonym, being used as the verb beating in that it is not yet the sound of the beating of the drum, but the beating down of a person. The beating goes on until she can endure no more until she goes numb.It implies the psychological torture of her interaction with people and how it lost(p) any meaning and just droned on an on in her mind, tormenting her in its absence seizure of actual meaning. It was the psychological beating and the metaphor of beating like a drum, as well as the abuse that it felt like. The repetition of the verb beating emphasises the fact that the drum or in fact society wint stop pressurising her and continues to feed breeding to her even though she doesnt want to hear it. It also suggests that the service was very long as it kept beating beating .The speaker is affected by the beating of the drum as her mind goes numb which suggests that her condition is deteriorating and the drum beat is fading into her mind. The beliefs of Society are starting t o sink in to her head. The words Drum and Numb rhyme in the stanza which correlates the difference between them and implies that the drum makes her mind go numb. This second stanza is similar to that of I felt a cleaving in my mind, as in this stanza she tried to follow her thoughts and the thoughts before however it was out of sequence.They were like balls on the floor slipping away, discrete, and incoherent and out of reach. This compares to that of her mind going numb because of the beating of the drum. In the third stanza of Dickinsons poem the speaker implies that the funeral has to come to an end as And then I heard them lift a box suggests that her casket is being carried out to be put into her grave. This creates imagery as it leads to delineate her physiological state. And grizzle crosswise my spirit the word disposition refers to a spiritual and religious state of mind. Creak leads us to think that the soul must be made of woods.When the mourners lifted the coffin they tore at her soul as if the death of her mind was still not the end. The fact that they noiseed across her soul suggests that they wanted there to be nothing unexpended of her, implying that all that they had already done to her was not the end, but there was more suffering left even though she thought it was over. Dickinson uses a metaphor creak across my soul to portray the speaker as suffering even at her funeral. If you creak it implies that you are hiding something as you walk carefully. This links to with those alike(p) boats of lead, again.Lead is a very heavy metal so the fact that the mourners are vesture boots of lead at her funeral and creaking across her soul suggest how un thoughtful they are and how much hate they have towards her as if you creak across someone soul with boots of lead you intend to crush them. The speaker implies that she has seen those boots of lead before same and again implies that the person who is wearing the boots was the one who caused her t he pain and suffering that she experienced and has now come back at her funeral wearing the boots to remind her of everything that happened like a flashback.The fact that the person creaked across her soul in boots of lead is peculiar as when you creak you walk slowly, trying not to get caught. But if you creak while wearing boots of lead which is a heavy metal its like you know what youre doing , the person may have wanted to slowly creak across her soul to remind of her of her past. The last line of the stanza and then space-began to toll implies that after they have walked across the speakers soul, Space begins to toll like a bell. Church bells often toll at the end of a service, so were in religious territory.She imagines that her mind or soul is like an entire universe containing a vast empty space. With their departure, the world nigh her rings out with sound, almost chaotically, with no sense or drive, as there is no longer a functioning mind to make sense of all the noise . The speaker begins to understand that this is really it for her. The fourth stanza continues the ending of the third stanza. All existence has been transformed to an ear, The ringing bell of nirvana both symbolizes church bells ringing for the death of her sanity and the random noises and sounds f the world around her. She can no longer make sense of reality it exists completely in the forms of sensations, intense sounds, without a mind to bring order to it all. Although the poem is surreal throughout, it grows more and more surreal as it progresses echoing the loss of her sanity. part she is left alone with the silence in doorsills her mind because at this point her mind is for the most part gone, with nevertheless a diminutive bit left she no longer has cannonball along thoughts because her brain has separated from the world. The Space from line 12 turns into the Heavens that ring like a bell.Dickinson has zoomed out from the funeral scene. Being is a generic term for exis tence. We say human beings, for example, to refer to human existence. If being is an ear, that makes us into passive voice receivers of the noise of the universe. We cant control what we hear. The tolling of the bell is a repetitive sound that reminds us of the treadingtreading of the first stanza or the beatingbeating of the second. Dickinson refers to if all the heavens were a bell which suggests that the speaker thinks that heaven is calling out for her to come, ringing for her through the sound of a bell. And being but an ear implies that she can only hear but cannot respond, so the heavens are ringing for her and she can hear them only. The speaker may feel as if the church bells are ringing inside her head. This creates religious imagery as Heaven relates to religion. And I and silence, some strange race, wrecked solitary here the speaker suggests that all she has is silence and herself which implies that she feels isolated. She feels as if silence is her only companion and sh e feels united with silence.The speaker emphasises her isolation by describing herself and the other race as wrecked solitary, here telling us that there is no hope for her or others like her, that are broken or alone. The Silence can also be another reference to her isolation with its implication of separation from the rest of the world. While they are described as an ear she is trapped alone in silence. This would make her (the silent one) useless to everyone else (the ear). Further, the implication is that she does not need chat with others with the ear seem to rely on, it is something that they share from which she is excluded.The speaker thinks that she and Silence run low to the same Race, or type of individual. We dont know why Silence would be in a world filled with the sound of a bell, but Silence is the negative side of sound. Both the speaker and Silence are passive and empty. In the last stanza it turns out she did have a little bit of reason left. The plank of reason breaks like rotting wood and she plunges deeper and deeper into lunacy, allowing her toviewthe world multiple times through the eyes of madness her insanity allows her to see multiple worlds, not visible to the sane.Dickinson twists our notions about insanity with her last line. Only through madness can we truly know the world as it is. However, since youre mad there is no way you can communicate this knowledge to others, hence the ambiguity of the last line she knows all about the world, thanks to her madness she is able to see it from hot perspectives, but since she is mad there is no way to communicate this information intelligibly to others who arent mad. And then a plank in reason broke this implies that she may have fallen through the cracks of religion, standing on a plank that is rooting.This suggests the hypocracy behind religion as religion is seen as pure and the answer to everything especially during the sixteenth centaury. This can also be interpreted as her logic or common sense disintegrated she lost touch with reality and her own sense of reason. Dickinson uses a metaphor to portray her loss with reality and then a plank in reason broke. And I dropped down, and down, And hit a world at every plunge She falls past worlds, which may stand for her past in any case, she is losing her connections to reality.Her descent is described as plunges, suggesting the speed and force of her fall into psychological chaos. She hit a world the speaker doesnt specifically say what world she hit but it does suggest her psychological state deteriorating. The word And is used at the beginning of every line in this final stanza, giving further rhythm to the descent. The fact that she hit a world at every plunge also suggests the speed and force of her fall into psychological chaos and the fact that her life flashes before her life. At the end of her fall, or at least the end of the poem, she Finished knowing. It makes sense for someone who has lost their power of r eason or intelligence to not be able to know things anymore.The last word of the poem, then, does not finish or end her experience but leaves open the door for the nightmare-horror of madness. The meter of the poem is in the classical ballad meter style of Dickinson, and gives the poem a sombre tone. The ABDB rhyme scheme carries us through the poem until the use of slant rhyme wakes us up in the last stanza. The poem is structured with 4 lines for every stanza. The themes of the poem are in capitals in every line of every stanza. I, Funeral, Brain, Mourners, Kept, Sense and so forth Dickinson uses many dashes and comas in this poem. In conclusion, Dickinson tries to describe a psychological state in her poem I felt a funeral in my Brian through the language she uses such as metaphors and the structure of her stanzas which include punctuation. The funeral in her brain symbolizesthe end of one state of conscious and way of thinking about the world to be replaced by a newer state of b eing which is wedge through the period of time and the way religion influenced her.