Monday, March 30, 2015

I felt a funeral in my brain: TPCASTT Analysis

TITLE: This poem actually lacks a title, like all of Emily Dickinson's poems. Readers refer to the first line of this poem when giving it a name. The funeral that Dickinson seems to be discussing is her "death"; she is losing herself.
PARAPHRASE: This poem describes Dickinson's downfall. She can feel her initial plunge into darkness and outlines how the "mourners" bring her down past return.
CONNOTATION: As detailed previously, Dickinson refers to the "funeral" as the death of her character. She associates herself with "some strange Race" meaning that she has alienated herself from the rest of society. She talks about the "Plank in Reason" that broke and she fell to her demise; when I think of planks, I think of old wooden boards that aren't very sturdy and are the bridge to one's end once jumped off of.
ATTITUDE: It initially appeared to me that the author was pitying herself and then began losing her mind more and more as the poem continued. The character appeared a bit confused and helpless throughout the transition while as the reader, I was become more and more afraid about what was going to unveil.
SHIFT: A shift occurs during the line that states, "And then I heard them lift a Box..." as before this line, things continued to intensify and this line provided a shift towards her ultimate downfall.
TITLE REVISITED: I now think that the title is referring to the funeral of her sanity. Things in her mind keep escalating beyond her control until she "...Finished knowing..." and the Mourners finished invading her brain.
THEME: The theme of this poem is that your inner demons will consume you if you allow them to. She gave the Mourners the power to tread through her brain, which ultimately caused her downward spiral into insanity.

3 comments:

  1. Thank you so much, these are so helpful!

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  2. Dima is from my school and he has no friends

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  3. God damn you didn’t have to do dima like that 😂

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