I+felt+a+funeral+in+my+brain

="I felt a Funeral, in my Brain" = =by Emily Dickinson =  Biography

 Born in Amherst, Massachusetts in 1830 on December 10, Emily Dickinson was a prolific young poet who dropped out of school in her teenage years in order to live a reclusive life at home. Born to Samuel and Emily Dickinson (nee Norcross), Dickinson had two siblings: William Austin and Lavinia Norcross.

 Young Emily was well-educated. She was an excellent student at Amherst Academy (now Amherst College) and at the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, but she missed many days of school because of her depression and frequent illnesses. She dropped out in 1848, and a precise reason as to why she quit her schooling is unknown.  She traveled nearby, venturing as far as Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She had many poetic influences, such as Benjamin Franklin Newton and Charles Wadsworth. She was inspired by William Wordsworth's poetry, as well. Her closest friend and correspondent, Susan Gilbert, ultimately married her brother. Neither Dickinson nor her sister, Lavinia, married. They lived in the same house (called "The Homestead") until their respective deaths.

 It is likely that Dickinson suffered from several physical and mental ailments. She also had to care for her sick mother, which likely contributed to her reclusive lifestyle. She likely suffered from agoraphobia, depression, anxiety, and an eye condition. Her poetry is characterized by an unusual style of syntax, punctuated frequently by dashes and unusual capitalization. She was fascinated by the color white, which she associated with death, and she saw a correlation between sight and life and blindness and death. She frequently associated the word "eye" with "I," and her poem "Before I got my eye put out" utilizes this tactic.

 Nobody realized that Dickinson was so prolific until her sister discovered more than 800 poems in her room after her death in 1886. Most of her work was published posthumously, and now Dickinson is considered to be one of the greatest American poets to have ever lived.

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"I felt a Funeral, in my Brain"

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, <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">A Service, like a Drum - <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Kept beating - beating - till I thought <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">My mind was going numb -

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">And then I heard them lift a Box <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">And creak across my Soul <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">With those same Boots of Lead, again, <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Then Space - began to toll,

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">As all the Heavens were a Bell, <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">And Being, but an Ear, <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">And I, and Silence, some strange Race, <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Wrecked, solitary, here -

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">And then a Plank in Reason, broke, <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">And I dropped down, and down - <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">And hit a World, at every plunge, <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">And Finished knowing - then -

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Tactile Imagery: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Figurative Language: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Structure: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Rhyme Scheme: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Mood: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Diction: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Connotation:
 * ~ __<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Element __ ||~ __<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Examples and Explanations __ ||
 * ~ <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Theme || * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Mortality
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The isolating power of religion ||
 * ~ <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Imagery || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Auditory Imagery:
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">"Then Space - began to toll"
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">"[. . .] creak across my Soul"
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">"I felt a funeral in my brain"
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">"Sense was breaking through"
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">"My mind was going numb"
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Personification/anthropomorphism
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Metaphor
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Repetition
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Polysyndeton ||
 * ~ <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Meter || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Form:
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Written like a hymn
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Funeral services play hymns
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Repetition
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Unusual capitalization
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Dashes
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">ABCB
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Except for the last stanza! "Down" compared with "then."
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Meaning: Emphasis that this happened in the past.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Perhaps the narrator is writing from the perspective of somebody who has already had her reason broken. ||
 * ~ <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Emotion || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Tone:
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Wonder
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Awe
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Apathy
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Somber
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Elegiac
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Freeing
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Boots of Lead: heavy boots
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Toll: the sound of a ringing bell
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Box: a rectangular prism generally used to hold, store, or carry items
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Boots of Lead: Heavy, repetitive, pounding
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Toll: Loud, clanging, repetitive, death-like imagery
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Box: a funeral casket, death-like imagery ||

=<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Works Cited =

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; line-height: 1.5;">"Emily Dickinson: Biography." //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; line-height: 1.5;">Bio.com. //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; line-height: 1.5;"> A&E Networks Television, 2015. Web. 09 Mar. 2015.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">"Emily Dickinson." //Poets.org.// Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2015.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Green, John. "Before I Got My Eye Put Out - The Poetry of Emily Dickinson: Crash Course English Lit #8." //YouTube.// YouTube, 24 Jan. 2013. Web. 23 Mar. 2015.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Shmoop Editorial Team. "I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain." //Shmoop.com.// Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 23 Mar. 2015.