I felt a funeral in my brain, Emily Dickinson- Analysis

Let's start with one of the easier (in my opinion) poems in my list, Emily Dickinson's I felt a funeral in my brain. While I have analysed Dickinson before, I've actually never read this poem, so these are my first impressions. I am a huge fan of her works, though, so this will definitely be a fun one to look at.

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, A Service, like a Drum –  Kept beating – beating – till I thought My Mind was going numb –  And then I heard them lift a Box And creak across my Soul With those same Boots of Lead, again, Then Space – began to toll, As all the Heavens were a Bell, And Being, but an Ear, And I, and Silence, some strange Race Wrecked, solitary, here –  And then a Plank in Reason, broke, And I dropped down, and down –  And hit a World, at every plunge, And Finished knowing – then –

Let's get through the poem's mechanics first, before we tackle themes and ideas.
The rhyme scheme runs in an A,B,C,B rhythm.

A     I felt a funeral in my brain, B     And mourners, to and fro, C     Kept treading, treading, till it seemed B     That sense was breaking through.

The lines mostly alternate between iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter, with a few exceptions. The poem is, like most of Dickinson's poetry, is in the same rhythm format as most hymns, which is why you can sing this poem to "Amazing Grace" and the theme from Gilligan's Island.

Now, let's look at the themes of the poem. Many of Dickinson's poems, including this one, are about death. This one seems to me to be more of a death of the mind than a physical one. The fact that it is called I felt a funeral in my brain certainly contributed to this theory. The speaker frequently talks about her mind, describing it as numb. It seems to me that this mental funeral is the death of the speaker's sanity. The first line of Stanza Four mentions a Plank of Reason breaking beneath the speaker, and dropping her, possibly into her own delusion. The poem ends with the speaker alone in her head, wrecked and solitary.

The last two lines of the third stanza are the part that I find relates to Dickinson's life. The lines are "And I and silence some strange race, Wrecked, solitary, here". Dickinson was notoriously reclusive. The lines, in my opinion, reflect on the speaker's loneliness. This is what could have, perhaps, driven her (the speaker)  mad.


Up Next: Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer's Day, William Shakespeare