2. I Felt a Funeral, in my Brain

I Felt a Funeral, in my Brain
Emily Dickinson

At first glance, the poem is just a funeral. "The mourners to and fro" with a service, the "lift of a box", and the "heavens were a bell", and finally [the casket] "dropped down" (Dickinson, 776). It is not until I realized that the speaker was in the box that the poem became interesting. The speaker implies that they are the one in the casket by using clues like "they" were seated, or "I heard them lift the box"- the speaker distanced themself from the group of people attending the funeral. When the speaker says, "I dropped down", I immediately thought that they were being buried alive. It is more apparent, however, that the funeral is actually for someone- something that is dying- that they are not actually alive. Their brain is "dying", the "Plank of Reason broke". The speaker's "mind was going numb". It is apparent the detachment that the speaker feels from a normal existence, and it is powerful to exemplify this disconnect through a funeral. Their brain is going mad to the point of envisioning its existence as a funeral.