I felt a Funeral, in my Brain Analysis

Symbols, Imagery, Wordplay

Welcome to the land of symbols, imagery, and wordplay. Before you travel any further, please know that there may be some thorny academic terminology ahead. Never fear, Shmoop is here. Check out our...

Form and Meter

Dickinson's poems are frequently compared to church hymns. Church hymns are often written in rhyming quatrains with a regular rhythm. We'll get to the rhythm in a minute, but a quatrain is just a s...

Speaker

At the beginning of the poem, the speaker must be thinking, "Not again! Get out of there!" She makes a gesture like someone trying to knock the water out of her ear after swimming, but it's not use...

Setting

In at least one way, Dickinson poems are like a Looney Toons cartoon: anything can happen. You could be walking down the street, and a piano suddenly falls on your head. You're nestled in a coffin,...

Sound Check

"I felt a Funeral, in my Brain" sounds like a child trying to tell a really depressing story. This kid has spent way too much time hanging around funeral parlors.Children tend to tell stories that...

What's Up With the Title?

Ha! Fooled you! This poem has no title. Actually, none of Dickinson's poems have titles. One reason is that she never intended to publish most of them. This is not to say that she never intended fo...

Calling Card

Typing out Dickinson's poems on a Computer requires the frequent Use of the Shift Key. She uses a Lot of Capital Letters. We're not sure why She did this, and Editors used to Remove the capital let...

Tough-O-Meter

People tend to disagree about how difficult Dickinson's poetry can be. We think this is a very readable work, but we consider it a sign of Dickinson's enormous talents that she can turn a short, hy...

Brain Snacks

Sex Rating

Funerals, caskets, numbness, and a terrifying free-fall. Sexy? Well, not to us.