Emily Dickinson Diction

Jordan Tyler
Poetry Analysis: Emily Dickinson, I Felt a Funeral in my Brain
ENGL 2205: American Literature 1865-Present
03/15/2016

Emily Dickinson had a unique style to her poetry that was very different from any other poetry written in her lifetime (Gubele). She used many different mechanisms to amplify her poetry, such as the use of slant rhyme and non-traditional forms like the “fourteener” (Gubele). At a glance her poetry may appear to be very simplistic but the substance would uncover the intricacy of its meaning.
Dickinson’s poem "I felt a Funeral in my Brain", is an excellent example of the simplistic style that depicts her feelings of overwhelming madness that she was falling into. To capture this she uses many different elements
Emily Dickinson was a very reclusive person. She received a good education and came from a religious background, yet she refused to conform to the conventions that society expected of her. She spent one year in a female seminary and left stating “I am one of the lingering bad ones” (Gubele). She did not have many friends or visitors and let very few people get close to her. Her primary contact was with her family members and a few friends like Reverend Charles Wasdworth, Otis P. Lord, and Samuel Bowles (poets.org). She was very intellectual and spent most of her time reading and writing poetry, yet she was never published until after her death. Seemingly, this indicates her poetry was something she wrote for herself as a way to release her emotions. This is evident in the content of her poetry as it seems more intimate and appears to reflect the emotional response to events that occurred in her
First, notice the reference to a beating drum. The drum is described as “beating – beating – till I thought My mind would go numb-.” The descriptiveness of the sound of a beating drum provides a sense of dread or doom. Then there is also the use of the word “creak” made in conjunction with the lifting of the box. The reader can envision the scary sound of a coffin lid creaking open or closed. Sadness is the emotional response most associate with funerals but in this case Dickinson plays on the fear of the unknown rather than the sadness of the loss being experienced.
Dickinson also used a very hymn like structure and some slant rhyme. An example of the slant rhyme is in the first stanza where she uses the works “Fro” and “through”, which really do not rhyme but have similar structure so the reader can make it connect (Shmoop). She provides the hymn like quality by making it to where the second and fourth line rhymes. One must wonder if the hymn like quality was an intentional connection for singing hymns at a