I felt a Funeral, in my Brain (280)

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,And Mourner to and froKept treading - treading - till it seemedThat Sense was breaking through - And when they all were seated,A Service, like a Drum -Kept beating - beating - till i thoughtMy Mind was going numb - And then I heard then lift a BoxAnd creak across my SoulWith 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 RaceWrecked, 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 - 

Rhyming Scheme -  First four stanzas are Exact rhyme of ABCB  'fro' 'though -' (19th Century New England rhyme)  'Drum - ' 'numb -' 'Soul' 'toll' 'Ear' 'here -'         Within the final stanza it becomes a slant/half rhyme as reason breaks as the speaker plunges into despair - therefore the rhyme pattern breaks down.  'down' '- then -'Devices - Alternation 'Treading - treading-' 'beating - beating - '   Oppressive, Sibilence 'Silence, some strange'   - Unsettling Metaphor 'Heavens were a Bell' 'Plank in Reason'    -Entire metaphor of a 'funeral'Simile ' A Service, like a Drum' Mood - Despairing,  Oppressive, ControlledSetting - Internal, Space/HeavensCharacters - Messages - Themes - Death and Burial, Suffering - possible Depression or Madness, Isolation

Funeral - the death of something, someone close? Something within her?

Constant relentless sound within her head, the mourns push her down

Repetition, aliteration

Simlie

Repetition, aliteration

Numb and distant from the constant repeating sounds?

Repeated 'M' sound creates a numb feeling

Repetition

Sound/Hearing is all that is left 

Sibilence

Metaphor - Reason is fragile

Unfinished, unknown

She made some discovery upon reacting the afterlife - however as we are the living we cannot know what

Auditory 

A mental breakdown

A mental experience likened to a funeral, a psychological death becomes merged with a physical one

Plunge into despair

- Focuses upon the effects of the experience/cause - like many of Dickinson's poems- Links to the 'indescribable' nature of Dickinson's themes

Mo

Mounting pressure and tension, oppressive

Repetitive 'B' sound creates a thumbing sound - creating an oppressive atmosphere'Brain' 'beating' 'Box' 'boots' 'Bell' 'Being' 'broke' 

Simile that reflects the sound the poem is creating with its repetition

Events are suggested though intense sounds'treading' ' beating' 'creak'ingSpace tolls, the speaker becomes only an Ear

Synaesthetic - Space tolls, all is only understood though sound

Speaker is isolated from everything and everyone

No support, no rationality

Loss of conscience, knowledge, understanding

Decent into madness, describing a funeral though the dead

Life to Death - Sanity to Insanity 

No longer human - dead or mad?

Poem

Technique

Notes