"I felt a funeral in my brain"

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 them 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.


In Emily Dickinson's poem, "I felt a funeral in my brain" there is a use of simile, repitition, and personification. The speaker compares the funreal service to a drum using like. The speaker then repeats 'beating' and 'treading' to add emphasis on the actions. She also personifies silence in the last line, she states that they were in a 'race'.

The central purpose of the poem is death and how she feels about funerals. This poem represents how a funeral, and the overall feeling of losing someone, can change your mind , and take place in your soul, not just in front of you. Going to a funeral is the physical action; however, you have to cope with it mentally.

This poem has not strong impact on me. Her message did not make me think any differently; however, I credit this to my being raised around death.

"I died for Beauty-but was scarce"

I died for Beauty-but was scarce
Adjusted in the Tomb
When One who died for Truth, was lain
In an adjoining Room-

He questioned softly "Why I failed?"
"For Beauty," I replied-
"And I-for Truth-Themself are One-
We Brethren, are," He said-

And so, as Kinsmen, met a Night-
We talked between the Rooms-
Until the Moss had reached our lips-
And covered up-our names-


The poem "I died for Beauty-but was scarce" Emily Dickinson uses simile. Her simile is in the 3rd stanza. The speaker describes her meeting with the man as them being like they are 'kinsmen'. The speaker does so in return after the man says that they are 'brethren'.

Dickinson's central purpose of the poem is dying for a reason and the connection between how the speaker and the man she meets have died. In the second stanza the man states that beauty and truth are one in the same. Dickonson believes that being honest is true beauty. And that being beautiful doesn't mean physically attractive, but ethically and morally attractive (honest). She presents this idea by placing her speaker in one of her main themes of poetry, death.

This poems impacts me by pointing out the true connection between beauty and truth. Before reading this poem, I never considered their relation; however, Emily Dickinson uses her speaker's death to introduce the idea.

"My Life Closed Twice Before Its Close"

My life closed twice before its close-
It yet remains to see
If Immortality unveil
A third event to me

So huge, so hopeless to conceive,
As these that twice befell.
Parting is all we know of heaven,
And all we need of hell.

In Emily Dickinson's poem, "My Life Closed Twice Before Its Close" the poet uses literary devices such as personification and caesuras.
Dickinson personifies the speakers life. She does so when she says the life closed, and that it can see. She also personifies immortality by giving it the human characteristic of unveiling something. She uses caesuras to put emphasis on the previous line that the speaker states.

Dickinson's central purpose of the poem is death and what it means to her. Most of her poems discuss death but they all present it differently. "My life closed wice before its close," presents death or in this poem 'immortality' to be secretive. After passing, she feels that her life is still not completely over. She also states that parting with ourselves is 'all we know of heaven and all we need of hell'. She points out our comfort with parting with the earth if one goes to heaven, but the fear of parting if one goes to hell.

This poem does not have a strong impact on me. However, I do appreciate the last 2 lines in the second stanza. They make a valid point of how people feel about death.