I felt a Funeral, in my Brain by Emily Dickinson

‘I felt a Funeral, in my Brain’ by Emily Dickinson is a popular poem. In it, she depicts a very unusual idea
of life after death.

Introduction
Like all of Dickinson’s poems, ‘I felt a Funeral, in my Brain’, is condensed and packed with striking
imagery and stunning ideas. It is a terrifying poem, as the speaker explores the idea of what it would feel
like to be conscious after death. The vivid description of her sense of hearing allows the readers to
pictures themselves there in place of her, experiencing their own deaths in full consciousness. Some
literary critics have suggested that this poem is not a description of the speaker’s own physical death,
but rather a description of the death of some part of her that she was unable to retain. The words and
imagery used suggest that perhaps that speaker was talking about the death of her sanity rather than
her own physical death. While both interpretations remain viable possibilities, there seems to be greater
connections and symbolism that support the idea of the speaker’s experiencing her own actual, physical
death. Many of Dickinson’s other poems, including but not limited to “Because I Could Not Stop for
Death” are also poems about the conscious experience of one’s own physical death. Both
interpretations are presented here, beginning with the most likely interpretation that the speaker is in
fact describing what it would be like to experience her own funeral in consciousness, while her body was
dead.

Summary:
The speaker feels that her mind throbbing until’ it seemed, that sense breaking through. ‘The
repetition’, ‘treading-treading’ and ‘beating-beating’, suggests that the same old thoughts have been
running through her mind time and again. The funeral imagery that dominates the poem further shows
that the mind is numbed with dead meanings. It has become the graveyard of thought. The box further
suggests confinement and enclosure, However, release is in sight: ‘Then Space began to toll’. Her senses
are crumbled and she is precipitated into the presence of pure space and pure sound. It is a place empty
of human ‘sense’, without form, attributes or qualities perceptible to the human. Temporarily
overwhelmed by tne loss of a sense of significance, she is feels almost ‘wrecked’ and ‘solitary’.

The last stanza shows an Alice in Wonderland fall from significance. A ‘Plank in Reason’ breaks,
indicating that the basis on which she had built her world has collapsed. She drops ‘down, and down’
and as she falls she hits other worlds, a salutary reminder that her articulation of the world was not the
only one. While chillingly disconcerting, the experience is not necessarily final. She is simply finished
with knowing’. ‘Unknowing’ has begun. In this fall from meaning the speaker experiences the fear of
being unable to signify., unable to find words to fit experience. In such moments, the burden of
language is lifted and there is an influx of power: All things swept sole away \ This- is- immensity.

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain Analysis

Stanza One
I felt a Funeral, In my Brain,
And Mourners to and fro

Kept treading-treading-till it seemed

That Sense was breaking through

Emily Dickinson, in this poem, writes everything through a keen sense of hearing. She hears all that is
going on around her, and she feels it, but she cannot see it. First, she says that she felt a funeral in her
brain. The beginning of this poem is quite striking to the readers. Many people have been to a funeral,
seen a funeral, or heard about a funeral. But this opening line causes the readers to wonder what it
would be like to feel a funeral. Most can relate to some extent, because they have felt grief and sorrow
before. However, as Dickinson continues to describe the sounds and feelings she experiences, the
readers soon become aware that this is not a normal feeling of sorrow or grief that comes from loss.
This is something different, and entirely personal.

The speaker describes the treading. She can hear and feel people walking “to and fro”. And for a
moment, she thinks that maybe she will be able to understand what it is that she is experiencing. This is
why she says that she thinks that “sense was breaking through”. Dickinson uses capital letters for the
words she wishes to personify as if they were proper nouns, actual beings. The Funeral is capitalized
because it is as if it is a separate being that she is encountering. Likewise, “Brain” is capitalized, because
it is almost as if her own brain is existing apart from herself in this experience. The “Mourners” are, of
course, people and so they have been given the capitalized letter for a proper noun.

Stanza Two
And when they all were seated

A Service, like a Drum-

Kept beating- beating- till I thought

My Mind was going Numb-

When her surroundings finally quiet down, the speaker can feel the silence and knows that the
Mourners have been seated for the funeral. This is when she hears the drum roll in her mind. Again,
“Drum” is capitalized here because it is as if it were a separate being, personified as the one bringing the
bad news. And it kept beating until she thought she would lose consciousness altogether. Her “Mind”
like her “Brain” seems to exist as a separate being altogether. The word “Numb” is also capitalized to
personify it as something that is taking over her mind.

Stanza Three
And then I heard them lift a Box

And creak across my Soul

With those same Boots of Lead, again

Then Space- began to toll,

The speaker’s sense of hearing and ability to feel are still the primary focus of ‘I felt a Funeral, in my
Brain’, and she describes the sound of a box being lifted. “Box” is also capitalized to signify the
importance. The second line of this stanza signifies something important. As the speaker hears a box
being lifted, she also feels something “creak across [her] soul”. This hints that the funeral she has felt is
actually her own. This is why she cannot see anything. She can, however, feel it. And she is only partly
conscious of what is going on around her. When the box is lifted, however, and she feels it, the readers
can begin to understand that this is in fact, her own funeral. Perhaps the readers can understand this
before the speaker herself is able to.

In the third line of this stanza, she is being carried in her coffin to her burial place. And the sound of
those who carry her there is like “Boots of Lead”. Again, the words “Boots” and “Lead” are capitalized
because it is as if they are the ones doing the action of carrying her in her coffin. The final line in this
stanza says that the “Space- began to toll”. The speaker can feel herself moving through space. She can
hear the sound of the boots on the ground, but she cannot see what is happening.

Stanza Four
As all the Heavens were a Bell,

And Being but an Ear.

And I, and Silence, some strange Race

Wrecked, solitary, here-

At this point in ‘I felt a Funeral, in my Brain’, it seems that the speaker is beginning to become aware of
where she is and what is happening. She mentions Heaven, and the possibility that it is ringing its bells
for her, and she being only an “Ear” can hear heaven calling to her. She cannot see what is going on
around her, but she can hear and feel everything. And in this stanza, she begins to hear a metaphorical
bell. The words “Bell” and “Ear” are capitalized, because she suggests that she herself has become
nothing but an “Ear”. And the “Bell” is also a separate being, calling to her.

In the third line, the speaker realizes that she has become something strange. She is not among the
human race anymore. This is why she says that she has become “some strange Race”. The word
“Silence” is capitalized because it is personified as something that surrounds her and hovers over here
and does not allow her to speak. It is what has made her a “strange Race”, a race that is not human. She
becomes aware that she is alone. She is destroyed, and alone. This is why she says that she is
“Wrecked” and “solitary”.

Stanza Five
And then a Plank in Reason, broke,

And I dropped down, and down-

And hit a World, at every plunge,

And Finished knowing- then-

In this final stanza, the speaker becomes entirely aware of what has been happening to her. The funeral
she felt in her brain, was her own. The coffin was her own. The “Boots of Lead” were those of her own
pallbearers. She is silent because she is dead. She is blind because her eyes have been closed in death.
She can hear, and she can feel, but she is no longer a living, breathing human being. This is the speaker’s
terrifying description of death. In the first line of this stanza, she describes the “Plank” or piece of wood
that broke as her coffin was lowered into the earth. She says that it broke in “Reason” because this is
the moment when she became aware of what was actually happening. The word “Reason” is
capitalized, because it is personified as the one who finally broke through to the speaker, causing her to
become fully aware of what was happening to her. And as she “dropped down, and down” she claims
that she “hit a World, at every plunge”. Worlds of different thoughts hit her as she plunged to her final
resting place. Perhaps she felt confusion, panic, wonder, maybe even acceptance. The speaker does not
explicitly explain the content or significance of the worlds that she experienced as she was being
lowered into her grave, but she does reveal that when she came to the very bottom of her grave, the full
realization of her own death dawned on her.