Journal #3 Emily Dickinson: How Does A Funeral In The Brain Feel?!

QUOTE:

“I felt a Funeral, in my Brain, / And Mourners to and fro… / Kept beating – beating – till I thought / My mind was going numb” (Dickinson 84)


SUMMARY:

This poem feels like Dickinson is exploring deeply into her own mind. She uses death or a funeral as a metaphor for most likely something else, however that seems like the usual speculation for her poetry.


RESPONSE:

Even though it may be somewhat cliché to say that pain brings the most beautiful poetry or art, it seems like there is a lot of pain or sorrow in this poem (and something about it is really beautiful to me). Most of the poem sounds agonizing, but only in the speaker or Dickinson’s mind. Although it’s not clear to me what is causing everything in this poem, it seems like the last stanza at least brings understanding or some sort of sense to her mind. However the last stanza isn’t necessarily a “happy” ending.

Maybe to me it can seem possibly uplifting at the end because “a Plank in Reason, broke” (line 16), and that seems better to me than suffering without knowing why. However, I then think about how ignorance is bliss for some people, so maybe having too much reason brings pain? I somehow doubt that this ending is as painful as the beginning sounds though.

I guess anything that has to do with “the brain” is going to stand out to me though. When I was first recovering from my traumatic brain injury (it was 4 years ago on January 4th) I guess I felt like really depressing thoughts (like a funeral) were always in the back of my mind. I’m not suggesting that Dickinson had any injury to her brain however; I guess I think that’s probably how I can relate to this poem. Certain lines stand out to me too, such as, “A Service, like a Drum - / Kept beating – beating – till I thought / My mind was going numb” (line 6-8). It kind of reminds me of when I get horrible pounding headaches - like my skull is squeezing my brain. (I know that sounds fun.)