Poetry Devices

In "I felt a Funeral in my Brain" Dickens opens a poem with this metaphor:

"I felt a Funeral in my Brain, / And Mourners to and fro" (Dickinson 1-2). This is an exceptional use of a metaphor in the poem because you cannot literally have a funeral inside of you brain. In the second line the speaker is thinking of mourners that are pacing back and forth inside of her head during the funeral. I chose this because I feel that Dickinson does a great job of using a metaphor and the feeling of sadness that she is describing became very real when I read this.

This example of a simile comes from the same poem "I felt a Funeral in my Brain": "A Service, like a Drum- / Kept beating-beating-till I thought / My Mind was going numb-" (Dickinson 6-8). This simile is describing the funeral service once it has begun. In line seven the beating that is mentioned is most likely not a very good feeling and rather uncomfortable. I chose this because I really liked this simile and it describes very well how sitting through a funeral does not feel good, but rather uncomfortable. When I read this simile I could not help but feel a bass drum thumping inside of my chest.

I chose these examples for a few reasons. First, they come from my favorite poem that I read during the research process. Second because I felt as if I could see the mourners that are pacing, and I could feel the drum beating. These are both significant because without each of these we would not really be able to grasp what Dickinson is really feeling as she is writing this poem.