Blog 3: I Felt A Funeral In My Brain

In Emily Dickinson's poem I Felt A Funeral In My Brain, the author uses imagery to describe the speaker's imagination of their funeral. The poem is divided into stanzas which describe the speaker's transition from lying in the coffin, to eventual death through burial. The author implies this by stating, "..I heard them lift a box and creak across my soul,"(Dickinson 776). With this thought of the funeral service, the speaker feels overwhelmed, and then "..wrecked, solitary,"(Dickinson 776), once knowing that her life, "..being but an ear,"(Dickinson 776), was being called to end (the bell) by the heavens. This thinking of the speaker's shows their feeling of lonliness upon the thought of death. Which, unfortunately, by the last stanza, the speaker dies: "..finished knowing-then,-"(Dickinson 776). Overall, the author's use of symbolism in the bell and ear represent the bell alarming the speaker that death is at hand and their noticing this warning. The imagery, such as usage of describing the service and their thoughts and feelings towards death, help the progression of the poem to the eventual death of the speaker.