Shawn, I think you missed the meaning on this one. Of course it is just my opinion, but as a mother who lost a child in their 20's, I would say that this poem is all about grief and I wonder if it would be possible to find out who Emily Dickenson lost when she wrote the poem. Maybe not as when it was published may not be when it was written.
In my view, she may be commenting in the beginning about the all-too-polite funeral goers who do not seem to understand the grief of one so stricken and while they are silent, loudly beats your heart and your heart's connection to the other and perhaps the pounding in one's brain that doesn't allow you to ever extract that person from your thoughts, brings you, at last, to a kind of sumultaneous aloneness, insanity, and pause. For pause, you must, to cope, to get on with life, to do what the world expects from you. But understanding is a different thing. Thus, I suspect that ALL the ambiguous interpretations you can come up with for the ending are true. For someone who is grieving the recent death of a child, a soul mate or a woman who has miscarried a late term pregnancy, they might tell you, like Enily Dickenson, they don't want to leave you feeling comfortable, but to wonder what it all means.
I took a completely different meaning from this beautiful poem than what is described as either an actual funeral and external loss, or the loss of her sense of self. I somewhat agree with the latter interpretation, albeit in an alternative way. I read in this poem a narrative of deep personal change , possibly growth, and in that transitional phase it felt like she was losing herself (which was a false sense of self). Perhaps she saw potential to lose or transcend the emotional/mental struggles with which she grappled. I present to you a different perspective (from any other I've found, so large grain salt is required)
If the funeral is for the loss of her false sense of self, the 'mourners' could be those old/unhealthy beliefs and thoughts, not happy to see this transition. Heavy-booted, making so much noise in her head, trying to distract her from letting her sense of 'self' go. "That Sense was breaking through"... she was beginning to see glimmers of a deeper truth.
The "service" could symbolize a period of introspection and contemplation, recognizing the patterns and habits that no longer serve her, allowing herself to sit in silence and make space for what she is becoming/welcoming in a new sense of self.
"And when they were all seated" ... she was able to quiet her mind... The "drum" could represent the persistent beat of meditation where new realizations and understandings could come to light, driving the transformation forward. Her mind was going numb... and in meditation, Buddhism, and other spiritual practices, quieting (numbing) the 'mind' to allow deeper truths to come forward is the point.
The old thoughts and beliefs are going away now "and creak across my soul"... like walking out of a room with wooden floor boards, a creak is impermanent and fleeting. She didn't write about the 'toll' of time, or for whom the bell tolls, but "Then Space- began to toll" as those old things recede. The feeling of "Space" can be the open emptiness and potential that comes with releasing old beliefs, making room for new understanding.
The dawning of this new understanding rang through her being 'as all the heavens were a bell" and her entire being was meant to listen to what those bells were ringing out. She was able to comfortably embrace and become one with the silence, though it felt awkward at first; she felt a bit wrecked after releasing everything else and what remained was simply her, in silence, and silence, and compeletly in the present.
"And then a plank in reason, broke" ... a small part of her was still trying to use her mind to understand herself, when she finally let reason go. When that happened, she surrendered. She no longer held on. She dropped and released everything until all that was left was knowing.
I understand Emily had issues with depression/mental illness, and it makes sense to me she would try to escape that in any way possible, so meditation and mindfulness would probably have been something she tried. I don't hear despair in these stanzas, I hear a journey towards enlightenment and personal growth.
I believe much of her work reflected themes of self-discovery and the nature of consciousness, so this would have been very much in character. And these practices are not a 'one and done' type of thing, those who are on this journey slide around on the spectrum of enlightenment and personal growth, it is never a final destination or stagnant state, the journey truly is the point.
Thank you for this project, I have deepened my interest in poetry because of it and this poem in particular touches me.
She thought she WAS her thoughts and was learning that she (we) was (are) not the thoughts, not the body. Rather, she was laying to rest a lifetime of belief, opening her mind and heart to the becoming; beginning to understand her true self , letting her false self be taken away, and then, finally, knowing.
You certainly present a very detailed, logical, psychological argument for your viewpoint. My only thought is that I felt more of an emotional statement coming from this poem than the very calculated, exacting approach to the wording that you suggest. Were such ideas of Buddhism, self-awareness, meditation and psychology available during Elzabeth's time and do such modern themes appear in her other poems?
I am not an English Professor by any means, merely a writer with life experiences and speculations. Poetry, writing, is not a science and without the author to speak for herself, all we can do is speculate. It is a game of sorts and I enjoy reading all opinions.
Shawn, I think you missed the meaning on this one. Of course it is just my opinion, but as a mother who lost a child in their 20's, I would say that this poem is all about grief and I wonder if it would be possible to find out who Emily Dickenson lost when she wrote the poem. Maybe not as when it was published may not be when it was written.
In my view, she may be commenting in the beginning about the all-too-polite funeral goers who do not seem to understand the grief of one so stricken and while they are silent, loudly beats your heart and your heart's connection to the other and perhaps the pounding in one's brain that doesn't allow you to ever extract that person from your thoughts, brings you, at last, to a kind of sumultaneous aloneness, insanity, and pause. For pause, you must, to cope, to get on with life, to do what the world expects from you. But understanding is a different thing. Thus, I suspect that ALL the ambiguous interpretations you can come up with for the ending are true. For someone who is grieving the recent death of a child, a soul mate or a woman who has miscarried a late term pregnancy, they might tell you, like Enily Dickenson, they don't want to leave you feeling comfortable, but to wonder what it all means.
Great point; I think a lot of that is there. Such a rich poem!
I took a completely different meaning from this beautiful poem than what is described as either an actual funeral and external loss, or the loss of her sense of self. I somewhat agree with the latter interpretation, albeit in an alternative way. I read in this poem a narrative of deep personal change , possibly growth, and in that transitional phase it felt like she was losing herself (which was a false sense of self). Perhaps she saw potential to lose or transcend the emotional/mental struggles with which she grappled. I present to you a different perspective (from any other I've found, so large grain salt is required)
If the funeral is for the loss of her false sense of self, the 'mourners' could be those old/unhealthy beliefs and thoughts, not happy to see this transition. Heavy-booted, making so much noise in her head, trying to distract her from letting her sense of 'self' go. "That Sense was breaking through"... she was beginning to see glimmers of a deeper truth.
The "service" could symbolize a period of introspection and contemplation, recognizing the patterns and habits that no longer serve her, allowing herself to sit in silence and make space for what she is becoming/welcoming in a new sense of self.
"And when they were all seated" ... she was able to quiet her mind... The "drum" could represent the persistent beat of meditation where new realizations and understandings could come to light, driving the transformation forward. Her mind was going numb... and in meditation, Buddhism, and other spiritual practices, quieting (numbing) the 'mind' to allow deeper truths to come forward is the point.
The old thoughts and beliefs are going away now "and creak across my soul"... like walking out of a room with wooden floor boards, a creak is impermanent and fleeting. She didn't write about the 'toll' of time, or for whom the bell tolls, but "Then Space- began to toll" as those old things recede. The feeling of "Space" can be the open emptiness and potential that comes with releasing old beliefs, making room for new understanding.
The dawning of this new understanding rang through her being 'as all the heavens were a bell" and her entire being was meant to listen to what those bells were ringing out. She was able to comfortably embrace and become one with the silence, though it felt awkward at first; she felt a bit wrecked after releasing everything else and what remained was simply her, in silence, and silence, and compeletly in the present.
"And then a plank in reason, broke" ... a small part of her was still trying to use her mind to understand herself, when she finally let reason go. When that happened, she surrendered. She no longer held on. She dropped and released everything until all that was left was knowing.
I understand Emily had issues with depression/mental illness, and it makes sense to me she would try to escape that in any way possible, so meditation and mindfulness would probably have been something she tried. I don't hear despair in these stanzas, I hear a journey towards enlightenment and personal growth.
I believe much of her work reflected themes of self-discovery and the nature of consciousness, so this would have been very much in character. And these practices are not a 'one and done' type of thing, those who are on this journey slide around on the spectrum of enlightenment and personal growth, it is never a final destination or stagnant state, the journey truly is the point.
Thank you for this project, I have deepened my interest in poetry because of it and this poem in particular touches me.
She thought she WAS her thoughts and was learning that she (we) was (are) not the thoughts, not the body. Rather, she was laying to rest a lifetime of belief, opening her mind and heart to the becoming; beginning to understand her true self , letting her false self be taken away, and then, finally, knowing.
I like it!
You certainly present a very detailed, logical, psychological argument for your viewpoint. My only thought is that I felt more of an emotional statement coming from this poem than the very calculated, exacting approach to the wording that you suggest. Were such ideas of Buddhism, self-awareness, meditation and psychology available during Elzabeth's time and do such modern themes appear in her other poems?
I am not an English Professor by any means, merely a writer with life experiences and speculations. Poetry, writing, is not a science and without the author to speak for herself, all we can do is speculate. It is a game of sorts and I enjoy reading all opinions.