I Felt a Funeral in My Brain - a Poetry Friday post
First the poem, then a bit of discussion. But only a bit because I'm feeling rather like I've been struck by a bus. (It's a combination of my rheumatoid arthritis and a fall up some steps.) Given how I'm feeling - and the fact that I posted this poem for brennayovanoff the other day, this poem seemed somehow appropriate. Because he gave me permission to use his lovely artwork now and again, because he's brilliant, because Dickinson's poems can so readily be set to music and because, well, I just wanted to, I'm including "Herself to Her a Music", a portrait done by the wonderful Kevin Slatter (aka slatts). You can purchase this image or any of a number of others at the shop on Kevin's website.
I Felt a Funeral in My Brain
by Emily Dickinson
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 -
I've seen this poem printed without the final stanza. I've seen it referred to as being about madness, but usually it's believed to be about depression. I can see it being about something like depression, but I believe it possible that it's about a massive headache, such as a migraine. You know, the kind of headache that feels like heavy-footed people are stomping about in your head. The kind that makes you exceedingly sensitive to noise, and/or comes with auditory disruptions.
Or maybe it's not about emotions or pain at all, but is merely her projecting to the time of her own death. Or, for that matter, astrally projecting. Once the funeral is finished and the mourners have cleared off, she lingers for a while, still conscious and hears the music of the Heavens. And then she loses her footing and falls, hitting "a World, at every plunge", and finishing with knowledge. Of the existence of the soul? Of the secrets of the Universe? Of good and evil? Who can say for certain, but it is wonderful to speculate.
About the form Like so much of Dickinson's verse, this one uses a form of hymn stanza: alternating lines of iambic tetrameter (4 iambic feet per line: taDUM taDUM taDUM taDUM) and iambic trimeter (3 iambic feet per line: taDUM taDUM taDUM). The 6-syllable lines rhyme, although the final stanza (the one that is sometimes omitted) uses slant rhyme, where "down" is paired with "then". That is likely why the poem is sometimes reproduced without the final stanza, by the way: early editors "improved" some of her poems by suppressing things that upset them (the mention of the breaking "Plank in Reason" might have confused or upset them) or by replacing words or omitting stanzas that they believed were not finished (because they didn't contain exact rhymes, say). In this, as in all cases, I believe Miss Emily knew best.
I Felt a Funeral in My Brain
by Emily Dickinson
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 -
I've seen this poem printed without the final stanza. I've seen it referred to as being about madness, but usually it's believed to be about depression. I can see it being about something like depression, but I believe it possible that it's about a massive headache, such as a migraine. You know, the kind of headache that feels like heavy-footed people are stomping about in your head. The kind that makes you exceedingly sensitive to noise, and/or comes with auditory disruptions.
Or maybe it's not about emotions or pain at all, but is merely her projecting to the time of her own death. Or, for that matter, astrally projecting. Once the funeral is finished and the mourners have cleared off, she lingers for a while, still conscious and hears the music of the Heavens. And then she loses her footing and falls, hitting "a World, at every plunge", and finishing with knowledge. Of the existence of the soul? Of the secrets of the Universe? Of good and evil? Who can say for certain, but it is wonderful to speculate.
About the form Like so much of Dickinson's verse, this one uses a form of hymn stanza: alternating lines of iambic tetrameter (4 iambic feet per line: taDUM taDUM taDUM taDUM) and iambic trimeter (3 iambic feet per line: taDUM taDUM taDUM). The 6-syllable lines rhyme, although the final stanza (the one that is sometimes omitted) uses slant rhyme, where "down" is paired with "then". That is likely why the poem is sometimes reproduced without the final stanza, by the way: early editors "improved" some of her poems by suppressing things that upset them (the mention of the breaking "Plank in Reason" might have confused or upset them) or by replacing words or omitting stanzas that they believed were not finished (because they didn't contain exact rhymes, say). In this, as in all cases, I believe Miss Emily knew best.