Listen to the audio clip of “I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain.” Then read the text. I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain by Emily Dickinso
n 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— How does the audio version of "I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain" affect the experience of reading the poem? The audience can better appreciate how Dickinson’s use of regular rhyme and rhythms reflects her traditional writing style. It emphasizes how Dickinson’s use of irregular punctuation helps to convey the speaker’s confusion as she loses touch with reality. It ends the poem with a sense of finality and closure that the text version lacks because of missing punctuation. The pauses between words helps to convey the sense of finality and closure that comes at the end of life.
