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(2016
midterm assignment) Sample Student Midterm Answers 2016 #2a: Short Essay (Favorite Passage) |
LITR 4328 |
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Ty Beverly
The
Power of Imagination
The poem “I felt a funeral, in my Brain” by Emily Dickinson begins with a
key term that is imperative to the American Renaissance, “I felt.” Despite the
scientific breakthroughs and logical thought brought on by the Enlightenment,
the Brain is used here as a setting that is home to her emotions. She begins the
poem without her senses of hearing, touch, taste, smell, or sight; she has only
a feeling in her Brain, and this feeling is a funeral that is being treaded on
by mourners. The use of the word “treading” denotes the idea that they are
unwelcome, or possibly even trespassing, however they stay long enough “till it
seemed / that Sense was breaking through,” which appears to be due to their
constant treading.
After the mourners bring back the senses, they are seated and the funeral
service begins “like a Drum.” The return of the sense of hearing is made evident
here by the drum, but it is also a strange sound to hear at a most-likely
Christian funeral. However, it is not specifically a drum, only “like” one, so
she has likely not regained her sense of sight. The drum-like service keeps
beating, just as the mourners kept treading, “till [she] thought/ [her] mind was
going numb,” with the narrator still unsure of what is occurring.
The next stanza shows her sense of hearing again, as she “heard them lift
a Box / And creak across [her] soul,” however it does not seem like she is the
one inside the box. If the sound of the people lifting the box is creaking
across her soul, then it makes more sense to me for her to already be in the
ground, hearing and feeling the funeral of another. The “Boots of Lead” are
heard until “Space – began to toll,” but what kind of tolling can space create?
She calls Heaven a bell and human beings an ear, suggesting that we are only
able to hear what Heaven allows to be heard, which makes the end of the stanza
seem rather dark. She compares herself to “Silence” and to some “strange Race”
that are destroyed and alone, not allowed or able to hear the bells of Heaven.
The last stanza gives a hurried feeling, as the last four lines all start
with “And,” the eye is constantly moving to the next words. It seems to be
attempting to lead up to something profound but is ended by “And finished
knowing – then,” after the “Plank in Reason” was broken. The plank seems to be
what is keeping the narrator in check but it does not seem to exist in the
previous parts of the poem. When it is broken, she is dropped and hits multiple
worlds until she reaches the end of her knowledge. If one loses their reason,
whether it is their purpose in life or state of mind, it can easily lead to a
person losing their overall sense of self.
