Emily Dickinson's I Felt A Funeral, In My Brain

940 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Themes in Emily Dickinson poetry

My first impression of Emily Dickinson’s “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain” by Emily Dickinson was a very interesting story on the verge of mental health, and struggling with the idea of self, and losing it along with a constant struggle with depression. It’s a quite interesting poem, very perplex and difficult. I choose this poem for the assignment because one its very relatable to myself, I myself have struggled with who I am, and what I wanted to do with myself, and have myself slipping and losing sight of who I am as an individual, along with my sanity. I also choose it because the complexity, there are so many ideas within this poem that you can talk about, which makes it a more difficult poem which also allows me to show my creativity while …show more content…

I would have had an appropriate understanding for the most part without it, but it definitely helped me grab a more developed thought and grasp on the work by Emily Dickinson “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain.” Especially when it comes to the certain complexity on the part that we talked about pertaining to “As all the Heavens were a Bell, And Being, but an Ear, And I, and Silence, some strange Race, Wrecked, solitary, here – “(lines 13-16). I undeniably skipped right through this stanza, I was focusing too much on the idea of Dickinson telling the tale of depression, and Dickinson’s lost on sanity and the death of herself within. However, while doing this I wasn’t truly on focusing what the poem was saying, I was more directing my attention on trying to find the meaning and relating to myself, instead of truly focusing on what Dickinson was addressing through her lines. Much like, one of her poems “I measure every Grief I meet” she states “I wonder if it hurts to live – And if They have to try –And whether – could They choose between – It would not be – to die – “(lines 5-8). Here Dickinson is a lot clearer with the idea of death and putting the message more plain and upfront for us. Now knowing this and seeing her works here this can help us relate back to Dickinson’s ideas in “I felt a Funeral, in my

Show More
Related

  • Comparison between Because I Could Not Stop For Death and Come Up From the Fields Father

    556 Words  | 2 Pages

    Dickinson gives us a joyous and happy view of death, which is like a kind gentleman that takes her on a journey. He is so civil, therefore. she willingly gives him her “labor” and “leisure”. She is not afraid of death, she instead receives it calmly. Whitman’s view is the contrary.

    Read More

  • Death and Emily Dickinson

    1312 Words  | 3 Pages

    One primary element of death is the experience of dying. Many of of us are scared of the thought of death. When we stop and think about what death will be like, we wonder what it will feel like, will it be painful, will it be scary? In Emily Dickinson's poem Because I Could Not Stop for Death, she focuses on what the journey into her afterlife will be like. Dickinson uses the first person narrative to tell her encounter with death. The form that she uses throughout the poem helps to convey her message. The poem is written in five quatrains. Each stanza written in a quatrain is written so that the poem is easy to read. The first two lines of the poem, “Because I could not stop for Death, He kindly stopped for me;” (Clugston 2010), gives you a clear view of what the poems central theme is. Unlike most poems that are about death, Dickinson's attitu...

    Read More

  • Compare Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night And Because I Could Not Wait For Death

    1435 Words  | 3 Pages

    Dickinson 's poem uses poetic devices of personification to represent death, she represents death as if it were a living being. Dickinson 's capitalization of the word “DEATH”, causes us to see death as a name, in turn it becomes noun, a person, and a being, rather than what it truly is, which is the culminating even of human life. The most notable use of this, is seen in the very first few lines of the poem when Dickinson says “Because I could not stop for Death, He kindly stopped for me”. In her poem Dickinson makes death her companion, as it is the person who is accompanying her to her grave. She states that death kindly stopped for her and she even goes as far as to give death the human ability to stop and pick her up. The occasion of death through Dickinson use of personification makes it seem like an interaction between two living beings and as a result the poem takes on a thoughtful and light hearted tone. The humanization of death makes the experience more acceptable and less strange, death takes on a known, familiar, recognizable form which in turn makes the experience more relatable. As the poem

    Read More

  • Analysis of Dickinson’s I heard a Fly buzz - when I died

    1316 Words  | 3 Pages

    Dickinson's poetry is both thought provoking and shocking. This poem communicates many things about Dickinson, such as her cynical outlook on God, and her obsession with death. It is puzzling to me why a young lady such as Emily Dickinson would be so melancholy, since she seemed to have such a good life. Perhaps she just revealed in her poetry that dark side that most people try to keep hidden.

    Read More

  • because i could not stop for death

    681 Words  | 2 Pages

    In this poem, the woman did not just die but she has been dead. She is communicating from beyond the grave, by describing her journey with death. Death is portrayed as a gentleman who takes the speaker on a ride to eternity. Dickinson wrote this poem in a way that the reader is able to feel what the woman is going through. In this poem, death is seen as a passive and not as being something bad. Dickinson’s form and tone enables the reader to have an understanding of the message she is trying to convey. In this poem, each verse paints a piece of a picture for the reader and as you get to the end of the poem the picture is completed.

    Read More

  • Because I Could Not Stop for Death and I Heard A Fly Buzz When I Died Poems by Emily Dickinson

    810 Words  | 2 Pages

    ... they contrast on their perception of death. This allows one to conclude that Dickinson views death and afterlife as indecisive and unclear. Dickinson uses different strategies to highlight the changeable character of death. In “I Heard A Fly Buzz When I Died” death signifies sorrow, but in “Because I Could Not Stop For Death,” death is kind to the narrator. Dickinson indicates that death is unpredictable. Nesmith also writes that “while everything heretofore is like a well-rehearsed play—controlled, orchestrated, and scripted, proceeding according to ritual—the ill-timed fly ruins the finale. Yet death occurs anyways” (165). Death can mean different things such as, the end of life or the beginning eternity. Death does not follow an agenda and is far past human understanding. Death has many points of view and is always unable to be scheduled around a human’s plan.

    Read More

  • Emily Dickinson's Before I Got My Eye Put Out

    945 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...eart would split, but because she is able to see nature through her imagination she is safe from those effects, shown when she says, “So safer-guess-with just my soul” (18) While Emerson uses only sight to form a connection with nature, Dickinson uses both sight and imagination to connect people’s souls to nature when she says, “…with just my soul open the window pane”(19); the eyes are said to be the windows that lead to one’s soul, so through this statement Dickinson shows that there is a correlation between imagination, sight, and soul because through all of them one is able to become one with nature. Through the very act of writing this poem Dickinson reveals that poetic writing is another form of reaching oneness with nature.

    Read More

  • Differing Experiences of Death in "I Heard a Fly Buzz-When I Died" and "Because I Could Not Stop for Death by Dickinson,

    1861 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...inson's unorthodox way of writing about death succeeds in catching the reader off guard. In both "I heard a Fly buzz-when I died" and "Because I could not stop for Death," Dickinson is able to portray death in a way that is unfamiliar to most people. She did not write to please her audience, but to serve death as a metaphor for how we live our lives. Her use of contradicting themes creates a frustration and angst that we as humans feel. As we live in constant fear of death, we lose control of our lives. Dickinson's use of imagery and language in mundane terms act as the epitome of how we live out our days. Although they are done in different ways, both poems captivate the reader emotionally and physically. Emily Dickinson's style of writing paved the way for other authors to open up emotionally to their audience and reveal who they were as a poet and writer.

    Read More

  • Identity and Ideology Beyond Death in Emily Dickinson's Poem “I Died for Beauty”

    1592 Words  | 4 Pages

    Emily Dickinson had a fascination with death and mortality throughout her life as a writer. She wrote many poems that discussed what it means not only to die, but to be dead. According to personal letters, Dickinson seems to have remained agnostic about the existence of life after death. In a letter written to Mrs. J. G. Holland, Emily implied that the presence of death alone is what makes people feel the need for heaven: “If roses had not faded, and frosts had never come, and one had not fallen here and there whom I could not waken, there were no need of other Heaven than the one below.” (Bianchi 83). Even though she was not particularly religious, she was still drawn to the mystery of the afterlife. Her poetry is often contemplative of the effect or tone that death creates, such as the silence, decay, and feeling of hopelessness. In the poem “I died for beauty,” Dickinson expresses the effect that death has on one's identity and ability to impact the world for his or her ideals.

    Read More

  • Compare Hope Is The Thing With Feathers And Because I Could Not Stop For Death

    1132 Words  | 3 Pages

    Dickinson doesn’t have the speaker complain about dying and be trying to avoid it instead she is calm and just riding along with death. She sort of goes on a date with him and is driving around taking their time to get wherever they need to go. When you get to the end you realize that she is already dead, and that’s why she wasn’t fighting it, because she was already there. The speaker had come to terms with what had happened and was reliving the moment when it happened. As one would expect, dealing with death, it was darker than her poem about hope. This poem was really able to capture emotion of death and portray it in an easy way to

    Read More

  • Emily Dickinson and Charles Wright

    1684 Words  | 4 Pages

    Although, Emily Dickinson physically isolated herself from the world she managed to maintain friendships by communicating through correspondence. Ironically, Dickinson’s poetry was collected and published after her death. Dickinson explores life and death in most of her poems by questioning the existence of God. Dickinson applies common human experiences as images to illustrate the connection from the personal level of the human being, to a universal level of faith and God. This can be seen in Dickinson’s Poem (I, 45).

    Read More

  • Death in Dickinson

    591 Words  | 2 Pages

    Emily Dickinson is one of the most popular American poets of all time. Her poetry is seen as intense and passionate. Several of her many poems seem to be devoted to death and sadness. No one seems to know the exact connections between actual events in her life and the poetry that she wrote. The reader can see vivid images of Dickinson's ideas of death in several of her poems. Dickinson's use of imagery and symbolism are apparent in several of her death poems, especially in these three: "I Felt a Funeral in My Brain," "I Heard a Fly Buzz-When I Died," and "Because I Could Not Stop for Death."

    Read More

  • The Nature of Death in Emily Dickinson's Poems

    2260 Words  | 5 Pages

    Emily Dickinson, who achieved more fame after her death, is said to be one of the greatest American poets of all time. Dickinson communicated through letters and notes and according to Amy Paulson Herstek, author of “Emily Dickinson: Solitary and Celebrated Poet,” “Writing was the way she kept in touch with the world” (15). Dickinson’s style is unique and although unconventional, it led to extraordinary works of literature. Dickinson lived her life in solitude, but in her solitude she was free to read, write and think which led to her nonconformity and strong sense of individualism. Suzanne Juhasz, a biographer of Dickinson, sums up most critics’ idea of Dickinson ideally: “Emily Dickinson is at once the most intimate of poets, and the most guarded. The most self-sufficient, and the neediest. The proudest, and the most vulnerable. These contradictions, which we as her readers encounter repeatedly in her poems, are understandable, not paradoxical, for they result from the tension between the life to which she was born and the one to which she aspired” (1). Dickinson poured her heart and soul into over 1,700

    Read More

  • Themes of Death and Immortality in Emily Dickinson's Poetry

    991 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout Emily Dickinson’s poetry there is a reoccurring theme of death and immortality. The theme of death is further separated into two major categories including the curiosity Dickinson held of the process of dying and the feelings accompanied with it and the reaction to the death of a loved one. Two of Dickinson’s many poems that contain a theme of death include: “Because I Could Not Stop For Death,” and “After great pain, a formal feeling comes.”

    Read More

  • The Theme of Death in Poetry by Emily Dickinson and Sylvia Plath

    903 Words  | 2 Pages

    For Dickinson, on the contrary, death is not something unreal. As the author has written "Because I could not stop for Death, he kindly stopped for me..." After reading these two lines the reader "imagines the picture of Death being a human which joins the author during the ride" . Dickinson tries to portray the characteristics of death in the poem. Stating that there is eternity after death, the author alludes both the possibility of the life after death and absolute zero-ness of it. Unlike Plath, Dickinson not only talks about the notion of death, but personalizes it. The reader feels that the author in fact...

    Read More

More about Emily Dickinson's I Felt A Funeral, In My Brain

Open Document