Mr.Mielcarek
English
11 June 2014
One of the most renowned American poets, named Emily Dickinson, was a woman who
seemed to be sad and depressed. Her poems had themes of happiness but her most famous ones were about death. In the poem “ I felt a funeral in my brain” she writes about how she imagines how her funeral will feel and look like. Dickinson used literary devices such as imagery, similes, and alliteration to allow her theme of death and depression to be portrayed within the poem. Dickinson in her poem used imagery to create visual representations of death. She spoke about all of the people walking to see her at her own funeral. “I felt a funeral in my brain, And mourners, to and fro, Kept treading, treading.” The people constantly going in and out, never stopping, shows her hopelessness for herself, like the pain will never end, and it will all lead up to her death. The people treading back and forth are her depressed thoughts treading through her mind. The mourners and the pain they feel about the death of Dickinson are in relation to her actual pain thats going on inside her. The use of imagery at the “funeral” display the theme of depression and death. The use of comparing two things apart but together;similes, aids with the theme of death and depression in Dickinson's poetry. The funeral is compared to a beat of drum. “A service like a drum”. The beating of a drum is like the beating of all of her thoughts constantly going through her mind. All these thoughts that keep beating within her brain, begin to all feel the same, and
soon becomes numb to it all. The use of similes comparing the outerworld with Dickinson's inner world is a manifestation of the theme of death and depression. Dickinson in her poetry uses same consonants sounds written together to allow for her theme to be emphasized. She writes about her body being put down into the ground. “And I dropped down and down”. The repetition of the consonant “D” in this case highlights, the pain slowly getting worse and worse. Dickinson's mind folding within itself, going into deeper worlds of pain. Going “deeper and deeper” into the ground, or her mind, shows her alienation from the outside world and only focusing on her pain, and not allowing for her self to get better, and constantly just getting into a deeper depressed state. Alliteration allows for her theme of death and depression to be portrayed across in her poetry. Emily Dickinson seemed to be a woman who has a great deal of depression, and thoughts about death. In her poetry she creates the visual representation of her pain. She compares in order to portray the depression. Using the same consonants allows for her feelings of pain to be emphasized. Dickinson, with the use of literary devices, allows her pain and her thoughts about death and her depression to be expressed within her poetry.
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
Upon hearing the news she breaks into tears, just as her loved ones had feared. She is expressing sadness over her husband’s death.…
- 840 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
In the poem "I Felt a Funeral in My Brain" Emily Dickinson exposes a person's intense anguish and suffering as they sink into a state of extreme madness. The poem is a carefully constructed analysis of the speaker's own mental experience. Dickinson uses the image of a funeral-service to symbolize the death of the speaker's sanity. Dickinson makes use of vivid imagery that builds in order to convey this abstract idea. One of the best examples is stanza three: “And then I heard them lift a box / And creak across my soul / With those same boots of lead / Then space began to toll” (9-12). At this point the speaker hears the coffin being lifted, being carried across her soul by the mourners, and then all reality seems to hang in suspension. Dickenson promotes the idea that at this point, there is something worse than death, which would be nothingness in her case. It is actually amazing how Dickenson is able to use one literary poetic element to better describe another element. When Dickenson states “Then space began to toll” (12), it's actually in theory opposite of an image itself, but perfectly describes this setting. Imagery is one of the few elements that Emily Dickensen illustrates through her poem.…
- 1001 Words
- 3 Pages
Better Essays -
Emily Dickinson’s main purpose in poem 355 is to describe an indefinable depression. She creates a melancholy persona to depict the chaos and despair she feels because of her condition. Her poem is structured around her uncertainty towards her mental state. Dickinson, in the first two stanzas, eliminates possibilities to what she may be feeling. She analyzes that “it was not death”, “it was not night”, “it was not frost”, “nor fire”. The poem appeals to the human sense of touch, as Dickinson compares tangible sensations that the body normally experiences to her tumultuous emotions. In the third stanza, Dickinson synthesizes all of the possibilities she eradicated in the previous two stanzas, ominously stating that her condition “tasted like them all”. The narrator is unable to distinguish her feelings from one another, leading the reader to conclude that she is in a chaotic state of mind. She compares her condition to a funeral, both of which evoke death. In the fourth stanza, Dickinson continues to explore her persona’s dark psyche. The narrator experiences terror and despair to the point where she “could not breathe.” Her only “key” to escape this punishment is to be able to understand what she is feeling and why…
- 518 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
An article, “Metaphor and Literature,’ defines metaphor as a tool that produces “meaningful communication” (MacCormac 59). Similarly, by adding visual metaphors in her poetry, Smith tries to submerge the readers into a deeper level of experience about abstract issues i.e. death and grief. She writes, “You stepped out of the body/Unzipped like a coat” (92-93). Here, Smith gives an insight to the belief that the soul leaves the body after death, which she imagines occurred with her father’s soul. She is trying to give the notion that death involves the separation of the soul. Likewise, in the later part of the poem, Smith uses different species of extinct tigers, “Javan,” “Bali,” and “Caspian,” to symbolize her father (80-82). The emptiness felt by her causes her to imagine her father as a rare species, who might also be alone in heaven. She imagines that her father might have also felt the deep pain in losing one dear to him. Smith describes this loneliness as “a solitary country” (84). However, later, she finds comfort in the fact that her father is no longer in fear. “Night kneels at your feet like a gypsy glistening with jewels” (90). “Night,” is considered to be a symbol of darkness, a time when people usually hide. Smith, adding these images throughout her poetry, tries to say that fear is eliminated in heaven .She emphasizes that her father experiences real power in his…
- 1631 Words
- 7 Pages
Better Essays -
In Dickinson’s poem it seemed that she perceived death as a gentle man willing to wait for her, willing to show her was life is about, and willing to help her to slow down from her hectic and lavish life. on the contrary of Housman’s poem it seemed that authors perceive death as a part of life and…
- 449 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
Dickinson’s poem “510: It was not Death, for I stood up,” explores the uncertainties of Death. The speaker attempts to define or understand her own condition to unwrap the cause of her suffering. The use of extended metaphor is utilized as the speaker uses the term “death” and that her life and state of mind, to her, resembles nothing other than death itself. The dominant effect would be the feeling of despair as the speaker represents this by saying “As if my life were shaven, / and fitted to a frame,” or in other words indicating that the speaker’s life has been shaven down solely to despair and that the “frame fitted” would only be feelings of terror. Dickinson frames her poem into 6 quatrains each with the alternations of 8 and 6 syllables per line. The irregular capitalization in the poem is shown with the use of “it” and other terms relating to death, light, dark, cold and somewhat chaotic tragedy.…
- 563 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Death is an odd thing, humans do not know what waits for them the moment their hearts stop beating, they do not know where they’ll end up going- but death is a common topic. Whether it be in movies or writing, death has made its impression on the world; especially on poet Emily Dickinson. Dickinson’s poems, “I heard a Fly buzz- when I died” and “Because I could not stop for Death” focus on a consistent theme of death and her own curiosity on what it might be like to die herself. Dickinson’s life and use of the archetypal device have a connection to helping fuel her dreary, death revolving, poetry.…
- 511 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
The poem by Emily Dickinson circa 1861 beginning "I felt a Funeral, in my Brain" explores several subjects contained within an extended metaphor of a funeral service. This metaphor is evident in the word Funeral, Mourners, Service, Box (containing the body), Soul, Heavens, Bell (rung to signal the passing). All these are capitalized to add emphasis and connect the meaning. Other capitalized words in the poem include Sense and Reason. We are told that the planks separate these concepts from being realized. There are people above the floor that can be heard in the basement but only impressions of them are felt. There is no way to fully conceptualize what kind of people they are. The whole poem has a quick beating rhythm like the Drum in the poem created by using short words and by using repetition of "beating" and "treading" we have the added effect of stress. The pattern gives the same sort of apprehension as the Tell-Tale heart of Poe and the mocking dialog his Raven. To me this poem speaks originally as the retelling of Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" from the point of the hidden heart. The heart hears the searchers above it and is pleading for its discovery so the truth can be revealed. In this interpretation the heart does not actually but envy's the beating above it, from line 15 "And I, and Silence, some strange Race/ Wrecked, solitary here". The heart and silence are different than all above and it is jealous of not beating like the footsteps. Race in the line also implies a racing heart; silence is a strange racing heart. After reading deeply into this meaning I also discovered a secondary theme. What Dickinson describes as "a Funeral, in my Brain" may be nothing more than writers block. She has ideas but they are blocked by the invisible wall (floor). She can hear the percussion of brilliance but can not see the Sense and Reason. At the end of the poem the floor breaks and the "World[s]" are revealed to her. In the context of this interpretation World can be…
- 381 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
I. Emily Dickinson was an introvert who wrote poems about life, love and death. Dickinson showed her feelings of death and Desire using unusual scenario’s that cause the reader to stretch their thinking and go beyond superficial thought. Emily Dickinson uses imagery, Form, and settings in her poems in “I Heard a Fly Buzz when I Died” to set the tone of the poem.…
- 453 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
In poetry, Dickinson is often fascinated by nature, death, pain, love and God. In her poems Dickinson often speaks elliptically. That said, when reading Dickinson's poems, we must dot the I's and cross the T's that we think are not L's. We must make our own interpretation because Emily would not have wanted us to interpret them at all. This is where the window is open to much criticism that maybe a pro or con to how others view Dickinson and her work. This is where we unknowingly hyperbolae words or phrases that should be litotilate.…
- 1484 Words
- 6 Pages
Good Essays -
There is a multitude of poems written with the theme of death, be it in a positive light or negative. Some poets write poems that depict Death as a spine-chilling inevitable end, others hold respect for this natural occurrence. In Emily Dickinson’s poem “Because I could not stop for Death”, diction and personification is utilized to demonstrate the speaker’s cordial friendship with Death.…
- 429 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
Dickinson is known for the usage of emotion in her poetry. One topic she wrote about was death. Early on in Emilys career she was capable of pressing her reflections on the precise moment of death into remarkably concise expressions, stated Porter(67). In many poems, Dickinson doesnt just talk of death, she personifies it. An example is the poem Because I could not stop for Death. Dying is compared to an unexpected ride in a horse-drawn carriage(Daniel 391). Also, Dickinson thought the suffering involved in personal relationships captured the impulse of poetry(Chase 191). This idea of pain expressed in the poetry of Dickinson is seen in the poem Heart! We will forget him. In the following stanza:When you have done, pray tell meThat I may straight begin!Haste! Lest while youre laggingI remember him!(Johnson 5)We can tell that shes suffering from the memories of a past lover. Dickinson wants her heart to forget about him, so that her mind may do the same. All her life, Dickinson was never married, but spoke very often of a lover in her poetry. However, attempting to relate any of her love poems to a particular man will always be precarious(Chase 153). Although many of her poems speak of a passion for a man, it may not have necessarily been about her. Dickinson could have been writing about any womans life in a certain occasion. Pre-appointed pain was Dickinsons favorite area of feeling, how…
- 1140 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson is one of the most influential poets and has unique characteristics that make her very different than any other poet. What causes Dickinson to be so unique is the words she writes and how she expresses her thoughts with them. Since a very young age, Emily Dickinson has always been captivated with religion and death. It aided that her room had a view of a cemetery and that her father was extremely religious. Her philosophies covered the Christian faith and how she felt about the church in her poem, “Some Keep the Sabbath Going to Church;” also, “I Felt a Funeral in My Brain,” gave different perspectives on how she felt about funerals and death. She had only a few inspirations that helped her in her writing and influenced…
- 279 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
In Emily Dickinson’s, “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain”, it conveys how the speaker is going through madness to the point where she feels a funeral in her brain. The poem is terrifying for both the speaker and the reader, The speaker shows her loss of self while being in the state of unconsciousness. The terrifying experience makes the reader feel like they are going crazy and insane.…
- 417 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
Throughout the history of human kind, there have existed a significant number of poets, who did not care to write about “happy things.” Rather, they concerned themselves with unpleasant and sinister concepts, such as death. Fascination and personification of death has become a common theme in poetry, but very few poets mastered it as well as Emily Dickinson did. Although most of Dickinson’s poems are morbid, a reader has no right to overlook the aesthetic beauty with which she embellishes her “dark” art. It is apparent that for Dickinson, death is more than an event, which occurs at least once in a lifetime of every being. For her, death is a person, who will take her away with Him, when the right time comes,…
- 985 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays