The poem “I felt a funeral, in my Brain” by Emily Dickinson,
is very ambiguous. Poets always have multiple meanings for every word in their
poem. This poem has vivid imagery about a funeral, and then a stanza or two
about going to heaven and then… That is how the poem ends, right in the middle
of a sentence it has an awesome ending though, because you don’t know if the
poem is a dream or is someone having an out of body experience while they are viewing
their own funeral. This poem is stupid. I don’t know why poetry makes me go off
on random tangents like this one, but it does because of all of these meanings
it is starting to make my head hurt. I know that poetry is useful, and is a
major part of culture in general, but it is just so darn difficult to figure
out just one meaning that you believe. Every time I read this poem or any other
poem more than once I get a brand new interpretation, and scratch the old one
until another clue leads me back there. Emily Dickinson has some great pieces
that I have already read, but this one just makes confused on what is real and
what is not, and I believe that was her intentions, so good job Emily. I just
have to say this poem is a good one with ambiguous writing style and vivid
imagery, but it just was not one that I liked all that much.
Here is the poem:
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,
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--
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