Exploration of the Brain in Emily Dickinson's Poem 670

Exploration of the Brain in Emily Dickinson's Poem 670

The brain is one of the most complex organs of the entire human body. How many people over the course of time have explored and tried to explain the brain? Even with millions of peoples' opinions of how the brain works, we still do not understand the most intrinsic parts of it.

The tricky part is the subconscious. We are able to hide things, even from ourselves, for years. How is it that we can bury so much information that becomes so hard to find?

Emily Dickinson understood this concept. She did not understand the way the brain works, perhaps, but without a doubt she did understand that it is able to conceal things from ourselves. "The brain has Corridors-surpassing Material place" (3-4). Surpassing all material things, the brain is past those things.

Within the corridors are heaps of information that we sometimes even become unaware of. Something has to be a trigger, to set off a specific corridor in order to bring that information back to mind. Many times this is proven when a person whom has endured abuse as a child is counseled. Psychiatrists have to probe deep into those corridors to retrieve information that the child has willingly or subconsciously buried.

So, why was Dickinson so interested in these corridors? Perhaps she was dealing with something of her past and during that time realized how hard it is to retrieve things sometimes. Perhaps she was counseling a close friend or family member and wrote this as a result of that. Perhaps she was studying the brain and became interested in doing research. Perhaps none of these things were the case with Dickinson. Whatever her reason, the poem shows much thought.

We go on to read that any ghost meeting at midnight is safer than probing into that abyss called the mind. Why is it so unsafe? Well, what kind of things do we bury deep into our minds? Normally, they are things that we want to forget, painful memories, and embarrassing experiences. Those things can definitely be considered dangerous. If they were not dangerous, why would we bury them in the first place? To illustrate this point, I am going to tell you a story.

I am the child of an alcoholic father. I have always lived under dangerous circumstances, and because of this, I have chosen to forget much of my childhood.