In general, a critical review of any work of literature may be defined as the main ideas’ summarization and evaluation. It traditionally expresses the critic’s opinion on the basis of already known facts in consideration of new information acquired from the text. As a matter of fact, critical review implies careful and clear analysis assuming the material’s strengths and weaknesses.
Effective evaluation requires the understanding of the text’s central idea, purpose, target audience, and hidden ideas. Moreover, it includes the analysis of the material’s separate parts and their relationships with each other. The purpose of this essay is to review an outstanding poem, “I felt a funeral, in my Brain,” written by Emily Dickinson.
Before any poem’s critical review, it is essential to examine the author’s personality as, in the majority of cases, the peculiarities of his or her life journey help to understand the meaning of their works. Emily Dickinson is one of the most prominent American poets who was ahead of her time and challenged the traditional definitions of poetry that existed in the 19th century.
Her poems are currently regarded as highly original due to Dickinson’s experiments with an expression that were aimed to remove conventional restraints. Her unique style is characterized by frequently used slant rhyme, unconventional punctuation, and capitalization, typically lack titles and short lines. These peculiar features were probably caused by the authors’ unstable mental state and emotional stress as Dickinson spent a prevalent part of her life in isolation.
In addition, the themes of immortality and death frequently occurred in her poetry as Emily was substantially traumatized by the illnesses and deaths of her relatives and close friends. Moreover, in some of her poems, Dickinson explored the idea of her senses and feelings after the body’s death, and this concept was reflected in the poem “I felt a funeral, in my Brain.”
In general, similar to Dickinson’s other works, this poem impresses readers by symbolism, stunning ideas, and vibrant imagery. It creates a terrifying impression as the author tries to explore the idea of being sensible after death. She provides vivid descriptions that allow people to put themselves in the place of a dead person who may feel and hear everything that happens around him. Moreover, due to the author’s concentration on senses, especially on hearing, readers have an opportunity to explore the concept of a funeral in a new way. A substantial number of people attend or see a funeral, however, the opening line of the poem (I felt a funeral, in my Brain) makes them wonder about the experience to feel it.
Dickinson additionally expresses discomfort and dismay as she cannot understand what happens around her and why people keep treading (Kept treading-treading-till it seemed/That Sense was breaking through). She cannot realize that she is dead and mentions her Brain to demonstrate the unreality of the process. She prefers to hear the silence when mourners finally seated, however, the funeral service begins, and it reminds a drum with beating that may cause the woman’s loss of consciousness (A Service, like a Drum/…My Mind was going Numb).
In the next lines, Dickinson keeps putting readers into the depressing and tense atmosphere of a funeral. It is more and more uncomplicated to imagine the feeling of being buried. Although the author subsequently hears Heaven and starts to understand what happened with her, she still cannot see anything (As all the Heavens were a Bell,/And Being but an Ear). Nevertheless, she feels lonely and destroyed when she realizes she does not belong to the human race anymore (Wrecked, solitary, here-).
The last lines of the poem illustrate the woman’s full understanding of her own death and related reasons why she cannot see and talk. She feels that she is being placed into her grave (And then a Plank in Reason, broke,/And I dropped down, and down-), however, her feelings at this moment are unclear. She may feel confusion, panic, interest, and even excitement, though, from a personal perspective, Dickenson expresses acceptance of death as a natural end of life.
On the other hand, this poem may be regarded not as a physical death but the destruction of the soul’s part and sanity that the author is unable to retain. The poem may be interpreted as the feelings of a young woman betrayed by a beloved man or people she trusted. This situation shocked her, made blind and numb; she probably feels that those people “burry” her with such a negative attitude (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,).
In addition, the author uses capitalization to underline the fundamental concepts of her poem – Funeral, Brain, Sense, Mind, Soul, Space, Silence, World, and Finished. In general, “I felt a funeral, in my Brain” is an outstanding work of literature that cannot leave any reader unemotional. While some people feel depressed and miserable from the understanding of death’s inevitability, others may experience relief and gratitude for being alive.