Everything I have read by Emily Dickenson is somewhat ambiguous and generally depressing. This poem didn't let me down!
It sounds to me like Miss Dickenson was going through an extremely rough time and really needed to express how brain dead she was feeling. The tone is depressing and funeral-esque [quite appropriate, cough cough, the title], and the diction used connects nearly everything to a slow death[ie. mourners, going numb, finished knowing, hit a world at every plunge]. She uses the senses to back up the tone by making them all seem like they are contributing to her funeral. Her thoughts are the "mourners" in her brain that just continue to fill her mind until there is no more room. Her heart serves as the beating drum, symbolizing the beginning of the event. The "boots of lead" term applies to the emotions that are weighing her down. I feel like something has just happened to her that she cannot handle in her life and she is at such a low point that she feels like she is literally becoming brain dead. Finally, she has a catharsis, letting go of everything that was plaguing her mind, and then the worst part; the poem just STOPS. How annoying is that?! I want to know what happens! Or at least have a little more to think about. That abrupt ending really makes me think that some suicidal thoughts were going on here. Maybe this was written near her death...?
It sounds to me like Miss Dickenson was going through an extremely rough time and really needed to express how brain dead she was feeling. The tone is depressing and funeral-esque [quite appropriate, cough cough, the title], and the diction used connects nearly everything to a slow death[ie. mourners, going numb, finished knowing, hit a world at every plunge]. She uses the senses to back up the tone by making them all seem like they are contributing to her funeral. Her thoughts are the "mourners" in her brain that just continue to fill her mind until there is no more room. Her heart serves as the beating drum, symbolizing the beginning of the event. The "boots of lead" term applies to the emotions that are weighing her down. I feel like something has just happened to her that she cannot handle in her life and she is at such a low point that she feels like she is literally becoming brain dead. Finally, she has a catharsis, letting go of everything that was plaguing her mind, and then the worst part; the poem just STOPS. How annoying is that?! I want to know what happens! Or at least have a little more to think about. That abrupt ending really makes me think that some suicidal thoughts were going on here. Maybe this was written near her death...?
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