Now we are going to take a gander at Emily Dickenson's I Felt a Funeral, in my Brain. This poem required a bit more thought and interpretation than "spring is pretty..."
"And Mourners to and fro... And when they all were seated, A Service, like a Drum - Kept beating - beating - till I thought My Mind was going numb." I think it's funny how she personifies these abstract thoughts. This really helps to give you an image of what is happening in her head - that is, if you know what the thoughts are. Here's my theory:
The mourners are chaos. She's thinking so much, so her thoughts are rushing around "to and fro." When they are seated, the chaos settles, and the service, insanity, begins. The funeral is for her stable mental state which has just died.
"As all the Heavens were a Bell, And Being, but an Ear, And I, and Silence, some strange Race Wrecked, solitary, here."
Theory number two:
Heavens are metonymy for religion altogether - using the word "heavens" just makes the analogy run more smoothly - while the bell is the call to religion. The ear is referred to as beings, so the ear is people who hear the call to religion. Emily, however, compares herself to silence because she can't hear the call and is not religious. By saying "some strange Race Wrecked, solitary here," she reveals that she feels like she is the only person who can't hear God's call, so she is a weak, damaged person. This may have contributed to the death of her sanity.
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