The Loss Essay, Research Paper

Emily Dickinson?s poem entitled ?I felt a Funeral, in my Brain? is directed towards a death in the speaker?s life. This death could have been a romantic love that had left him or her behind. It seems that they go through a type of struggle that is sort of bound to them.

The first line of the poem is ?I felt a Funeral, in my Brain.? This is the title of the piece because Dickinson did not title her work, so when it was published, the first line of each piece was used as the title. This line describes a complete mess in the speaker?s mind. This so-called funeral is just tearing them apart. This funeral seems to be racing over and over in their mind.

As the piece continues, there is talk about mourners going to and fro, who are treading and treading. It can be thought as these memories that are racing through their head. Mourners are those who express their grief or sorrow. So these mourners are the ones at the funeral. Not saying that Dickinson is the speaker in this piece, but who ever it is they have these thoughts pressed in their head. And because of them, their sorrow is showing.

The next line states that the sense was breaking through. Therefore it is all coming back to the poet. This can allow the poet to know what is going on with them, and maybe comprehend it as well.

The next stanza begins with them all being seated at this service, like a drum. So now all these mourners are at the funeral sitting in sorrow for the loss of someone obviously close to them. This speaker describes the service to be like some kind of drum that keeps beating and beating until their mind goes numb. I am guessing that memories are going over his or her mind.

Then the poet ?heard them lift a box.? This would be the pallbearers lifting the casket at this funeral. The speaker says that it creaks across their soul. Maybe this might have made him or her feel uncomfortable in this kind of situation. One can only tell how the feel with the loss of someone important in their life.

?With those same boots of lead, again, then space-began to toll,? next says the poet. These boots being the one?s of the pallbearers walking the casket away. Space would begin to toll between the poet and they?re lost love. It seems as though the poet does not want to distance himself or herself from this person, but fate is talking them away.

Stanza four begins with ?all the Heavens were a bell?? Could this be a good place for his or her lost love to go, but still too distant from the speaker? Only the speaker knows. ??And being, but an ear,? they say. This means that the poet can only hear them now, instead of this person always being around and near to them, Heaven being a place too damn far away. This speaker can only begin to describe the pain going on inside of them. And the stanza ends with the speaker being in silence all alone. Feeling like they are the only one around now and things will just never be the same once again.

?And a Plank in Reason, broke, and I dropped down, and down,? stated the poet. This would be a reality check. It seems that the speaker kind of woke up from this depressing dream. It goes on to say that they ?hit the world?and finished knowing-then,? knowing that this person will never be around again. Their love is out of his or her life forever, but not out of their mind and soul, because the memories that they once shared will live on.

Emily Dickinson was a wonderful American poet and it was unfortunate that a lot of her work was not discovered until later on. This piece is a wonderful example of her work. I feel that this represents a kind of struggle that everyone goes through when they lose someone special.