I felt a Funeral in my Brain

[warrickt]

I have to analyze I felt a Funeral in my Brain...I'm having a hard time...can anyone please help me break it down?
it would be great!

[Zong-in Kim]

I have to analyze I felt a Funeral in my Brain...I'm having a hard time...can anyone please help me break it down?
it would be great!

Hello, warrickt !
I put it into Korean on December 17, 2006 in my blog with some quote-note sources as follows. I hope this reply not too late and it helps... Good luck.
-Kim(blog.daum.net/kimzi-122)

---

On 280 ("I felt a Funeral, in my Brain") english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/dickinson/280.htm
I felt a Funeral, in my Brain Summary & Essays - Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson's Poetry Essays on Authors

[Naila]

Give me the lines
and i ll see

[Zong-in Kim]

Give me the lines
and i ll see

Hi,

Do you like to see my Korean translation or analysis sources about it in more detail? If your asking is trans., I recommend you visit my blog (dated December 27, 2006) address as given in my previous reply. As for (more detailed) sources I'll refrain as Googling will do better.

thanks and Good luck...!!!

-Kim

[bigbuckeasyway]

As all the Heavens were a Bell,
And Being, but an Ear,
And I, and Silence, some strange Race
Wrecked, solitary, here--


this is my understanding of this stanza:
because all the heavens sound like a bell, I, silence and some strange race have to be an ear. The sound of the bell is so loud that our ears are wrecked, then we can only feel solitary for we can hear nothing here in the coffin.


Is my interpretation correct?

What does "some strange race " mean? Does ""race" refer to "any of several large subdivisions of mankind sharing physical characteristics, eg colour of skin, colour and type of hair, shape of eyes and nose", or "a competition in which people or animals compete to run, drive etc fastest and finish first"?

[bigbuckeasyway]

I need a reply

[ktd222]

As all the Heavens were a Bell,
And Being, but an Ear,
And I, and Silence, some strange Race
Wrecked, solitary, here--


this is my understanding of this stanza:
because all the heavens sound like a bell, I, silence and some strange race have to be an ear. The sound of the bell is so loud that our ears are wrecked, then we can only feel solitary for we can hear nothing here in the coffin.


Is my interpretation correct?"?

You need to post the whole poem. When reading, imagine a funeral procession happening. Think about the processes that is involved in a funeral service. What's the significance of a funeral? What does the speaker imagine a funeral consists of...and what is the actual process of a funeral as described in the poem? There is a point of divergence between what is thought and what is reality in the speaker's voice.

Hope that helps you analyze this poem

[bigbuckeasyway]

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain (280)


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 then 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--

And then a Plank in Reason, broke,
And I dropped down, and down--
And hit a World, at every plunge,
And Finished knowing--then--

Emily Dickinson

[bigbuckeasyway]

please tell me what does the word "race" mean.

[ktd222]

“Race” means a group of people sharing similar characteristics.

[bigbuckeasyway]

Who is "being but an Ear"?
does "wrecked" mean "extremely tired"?

[bigbuckeasyway]

I am inclined to think that the person is buried alive. How can his or her family bury him or her when he or she is still alive? For if a person's consciousness can still sense the surrounding activities, he or she is still alive.

[ktd222]

I am inclined to think that the person is buried alive. How can his or her family bury him or her when he or she is still alive? For if a person's consciousness can still sense the surrounding activities, he or she is still alive.

The mourners attending the speaker’s funeral do not realize that the consciousness remains functional after death. The speaker was not “buried alive” per say, because the physical body was considered dead. But the mourners, the people still alive, can’t know this, because they are still alive; this is the difference in perspectives between “the living” and “the dead.” This is the purpose of a funeral as far as the living is concerned…a celebration for the dead. It seems that only by being dead can one realize, gain another perspective, which shows death is not the end of life.

[ktd222]

Who is "being but an Ear"?
does "wrecked" mean "extremely tired"?

She used “Being” to show that an Ear, the object in which we use our sense of listening – exist – as if it was a Being unto itself.
“Wrecked,” in this context, is more like a car or boat wreck. Example: I wrecked my boat on an island where the only other living thing was Silence.