Throughout history, poetry has been used by many to teach lessons and express the feelings of humanity. During the nineteenth century, authors began to write in a fashion known as Realism, which closely mimics the basis of real life, though more often focuses on acknowledging the negative aspects of humanity. The goal of writing in this style was to promote social reforms and change the mindset of mankind. Death was not an uncommon subject for the realist movement, and many renowned poets from this time made this the subject of their works. Due to the fact that these are poems, many times authors would not explicitly state their intent, but instead weave their message into the piece using a variety of poetic devices. “I felt a Funeral, in my
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Like many of her poems, Dickinson puts a distinct rhyme scheme in place. However in this poem, Dickinson establishes the A-B-C-B rhyme scheme in the second stanza and continues it within the third and fourth stanzas. Something to notice is that this distinct rhyme scheme is not maintained throughout the final stanza, nor is it introduced in the first stanza. If the pattern had been placed in the unconventional stanzas, the second line should rhyme with the fourth line, but this is not the case as “fro” (2) does not rhyme with “through” (4). This exception is also applicable to the fifth stanza, as Dickinson ended the lines—which should rhyme—with the words “down” (18) and “then” (20). By not rhyming lines in these stanzas, Dickinson places the dazed and overwhelmed feeling described by the speaker inside the mind of the audience. This confusion is explained in the first stanza until the speaker felt “That Sense was breaking through” (4). Rhyme schemes tend to give poems a structure and make them seem more organized, which is exactly what occurs when Dickinson puts a rhyme scheme in place in the middle of the poem. Subsequently, the audience is able to empathize with the mourning narrator, as they feel the narrator’s confusion at the beginning and the end of the piece; this feeling relates directly to the message Dickinson was trying to convey, as the …show more content…
For the most part, these comparisons elaborate on the narrator’s conflicting feelings by relating the abstract to something concrete. The audience can relate these objects to the speaker’s feelings, such as sadness which “Kept beating — beating” (7) like a “Drum” (6) in the speaker’s mind. Simply by comparing the funeral to the beat of a drum, the author was able to convey that the funeral is recurring in the speaker’s mind. Another thing going through the speakers brain—literally—were the “mourners/... with those same Boots of Lead” (2, 11). Not only do these lines reiterate the fact that the funeral scene is playing on a loop in the speaker’s head, but they also show the weight which these memories are bearing on the speaker. One can also deduce from this that the speaker has felt this immense mental pain previously and that these thoughts are as troublesome as a lead boot to the brain; it is clear that mourning is psychologically agonizing for the speaker. Thus, Dickinson used these powerful metaphors throughout her piece to demonstrate the extreme feelings of a mourner and help those who have never mourned to understand what it is truly
Like many of her poems, Dickinson puts a distinct rhyme scheme in place. However in this poem, Dickinson establishes the A-B-C-B rhyme scheme in the second stanza and continues it within the third and fourth stanzas. Something to notice is that this distinct rhyme scheme is not maintained throughout the final stanza, nor is it introduced in the first stanza. If the pattern had been placed in the unconventional stanzas, the second line should rhyme with the fourth line, but this is not the case as “fro” (2) does not rhyme with “through” (4). This exception is also applicable to the fifth stanza, as Dickinson ended the lines—which should rhyme—with the words “down” (18) and “then” (20). By not rhyming lines in these stanzas, Dickinson places the dazed and overwhelmed feeling described by the speaker inside the mind of the audience. This confusion is explained in the first stanza until the speaker felt “That Sense was breaking through” (4). Rhyme schemes tend to give poems a structure and make them seem more organized, which is exactly what occurs when Dickinson puts a rhyme scheme in place in the middle of the poem. Subsequently, the audience is able to empathize with the mourning narrator, as they feel the narrator’s confusion at the beginning and the end of the piece; this feeling relates directly to the message Dickinson was trying to convey, as the …show more content…
For the most part, these comparisons elaborate on the narrator’s conflicting feelings by relating the abstract to something concrete. The audience can relate these objects to the speaker’s feelings, such as sadness which “Kept beating — beating” (7) like a “Drum” (6) in the speaker’s mind. Simply by comparing the funeral to the beat of a drum, the author was able to convey that the funeral is recurring in the speaker’s mind. Another thing going through the speakers brain—literally—were the “mourners/... with those same Boots of Lead” (2, 11). Not only do these lines reiterate the fact that the funeral scene is playing on a loop in the speaker’s head, but they also show the weight which these memories are bearing on the speaker. One can also deduce from this that the speaker has felt this immense mental pain previously and that these thoughts are as troublesome as a lead boot to the brain; it is clear that mourning is psychologically agonizing for the speaker. Thus, Dickinson used these powerful metaphors throughout her piece to demonstrate the extreme feelings of a mourner and help those who have never mourned to understand what it is truly