Mr.Mielcarek
English
11 June 2014
One of the most renowned American poets, named Emily Dickinson, was a woman who
seemed to be sad and depressed. Her poems had themes of happiness but her most famous ones were about death. In the poem “ I felt a funeral in my brain” she writes about how she imagines how her funeral will feel and look like. Dickinson used literary devices such as imagery, similes, and alliteration to allow her theme of death and depression to be portrayed within the poem. Dickinson in her poem used imagery to create visual representations of death. She spoke about all of the people walking to see her at her own funeral. “I felt a funeral in my brain, And mourners, to and fro, Kept treading, treading.” The people constantly going in and out, never stopping, shows her hopelessness for herself, like the pain will never end, and it will all lead up to her death. The people treading back and forth are her depressed thoughts treading through her mind. The mourners and the pain they feel about the death of Dickinson are in relation to her actual pain thats going on inside her. The use of imagery at the “funeral” display the theme of depression and death. The use of comparing two things apart but together;similes, aids with the theme of death and depression in Dickinson's poetry. The funeral is compared to a beat of drum. “A service like a drum”. The beating of a drum is like the beating of all of her thoughts constantly going through her mind. All these thoughts that keep beating within her brain, begin to all feel the same, and
soon becomes numb to it all. The use of similes comparing the outerworld with Dickinson's inner world is a manifestation of the theme of death and depression. Dickinson in her poetry uses same consonants sounds written together to allow for her theme to be emphasized. She writes about her body being put down into the ground. “And I dropped down and down”. The repetition of the consonant “D” in this case highlights, the pain slowly getting worse and worse. Dickinson's mind folding within itself, going into deeper worlds of pain. Going “deeper and deeper” into the ground, or her mind, shows her alienation from the outside world and only focusing on her pain, and not allowing for her self to get better, and constantly just getting into a deeper depressed state. Alliteration allows for her theme of death and depression to be portrayed across in her poetry. Emily Dickinson seemed to be a woman who has a great deal of depression, and thoughts about death. In her poetry she creates the visual representation of her pain. She compares in order to portray the depression. Using the same consonants allows for her feelings of pain to be emphasized. Dickinson, with the use of literary devices, allows her pain and her thoughts about death and her depression to be expressed within her poetry.
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