Describe the mourners and how they affect the poet in “I Felt a Funeral in My Brain.”

Answer

Describe the mourners and how they affect the poet in “I Felt a Funeral in My Brain.” [NU: 2019, 21]

In Emily Dickinson’s (1830-1886) poem “I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain,” a funeral takes place in the poet’s mind. This funeral is not real. The mourners are not real people. They are just images in the poet’s mind. She uses the funeral images to show her mental breakdown. The mourners move, sit, and carry a coffin. Their actions deeply affect the poet’s mind.

Walking: At first, the poet feels a funeral taking place in her mind. The mourners are walking “to and fro” inside her brain.

“Mourners to and fro

Kept treading – treading -”

Their steps are repeated again and again. Their walking seems endless and painful. The steps continue until she loses her sense. This image of the mourners’ endless footsteps in her mind suggests that she is in deep mental pain. Her mind is breaking down.

The Service: After walking, the mourners sit down, and a service begins. The poet compares it to the beating of a drum. The sound keeps “beating – beating” until her mind goes numb. This shows how she is slowly losing control over her thoughts.

The Coffin and the Boots of Lead: The mourners also lift a coffin.

“And then I heard them lift a Box”

She hears the coffin’s creaking sound into her soul. The mourners also have “Boots of Lead.” The boots give her a feeling of great weight. It means that she feels a heavy burden and pain inside her mind.

In fine, the mourners in the poem are a picture of the poet’s mental suffering. Their walking, service, and lifting of the coffin disturb her until she goes mad. The mourners affect her so much that she loses her sense of reason/thinking.