17 pages • 34 minutes read
Emily DickinsonI Felt a Funeral, in My Brain
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1896A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Literary Devices
Form and Meter
The poem features five quatrains or five stanzas with four lines. The first and third lines in each stanza mimic iambic tetrameter—they contain roughly four iambic feet for a total of eight syllables. So, for example, Line 17’s meter is: “And then a Plank in Reason, broke.” The second and fourth lines approximate iambic trimeter—they contain three feet for a total of six syllables. Thus, the meter of Line 18 is: “And I dropped down, and down—”.
In the poem, the second and last lines in each stanza rhyme, creating the rhyme scheme ABCB. This sonic resonance gives the poem a harmonious sound that contrasts with the grating noise heard by the speaker. The purposeful, controlled form and meter give the poem a tidiness that clashes with the wrecked, distressed speaker, highlighting the messy feeling of death or trauma.
Repetition
Repetition is a literary device in which the poet repeats specific words or phrases to emphasize a theme, idea, or feeling. In the poem, Emily Dickinson repeats words to underscore the speaker’s anxiety and distress. For instance, as the mourners are “treading—treading” (Line 3) in the speaker’s brain, the repetition makes their steps appear doubly oppressive. Similarly, the continuous drum “beating—beating” (Line 7), produces extra suspense and cacophony.
The repetition of “down” (Line 18) reinforces the depths to which the speaker has to fall to finally gain knowledge of death. The image of the speaker falling through many floors “of Reason” (Line 17), constantly hitting world after world during this descent shows the enormity of the space the speaker is suddenly witness to. As the reader repeats the words, they, too, join the descent. The repetition of “down”—and “beating” and “treading”—also provides a rhythmic quality, making the poem feel like a chant, or spell.
Unexpected Twist
Due to its puzzling and elusive atmosphere, the poem features multiple unexpected twists. As death typically happens to a person’s entire body, it’s ironic that the funeral takes place in the speaker’s brain, suggesting that the rest of the body remains unaffected or alive. This death of cognition fights against the heartbeat implied by the rhythmically stomping boots of the mourners and the ceaselessly beating drums: The speaker wants to explore death, but the fact of being alive prevents the speaker from being able to do so. Thus, the death the poem describes isn’t the product of a physical decline, but a thought experiment.
The mourners are another surprisingly characterized element. Rather than well-wishers grieving the loss of a beloved friend, family member, or acquaintance, they are the speaker’s antagonists, treading and creaking all over the speaker. However, the irony comes when the mourners disappear: The absence of their noise throws the speaker into much darker company, that of “Silence” with whom the speaker becomes “Wrecked” and “solitary” (Lines 15-16).
Related Titles
By Emily Dickinson
