"A service like a drum
Kept beating, beating, till I thought
My mind was going numb."
In Emily Dickinson's poem "I felt a funeral in my brain" Dickinson repeats specific words and sounds to indicate her insanity. She repeats the words treading, beating, and down which are all actions she or the mourners make throughout this funeral. The funeral actually indicates how she feels she is going insane and the chaos that is taking place in her mind. The mourners treading represent her last sane thoughts while the drum beating represents the coming insanity. This repetition functions as another way to indicate her craziness. Insane people often ramble or repeat things they have already said as if they are trapped within their thoughts. This is exactly what Dickinson is trying to convey through her poem: She is showing how she is about to be trapped in the depths of her mind as she falls "down and down" into it from reality. The part of her that was sane has now passed away and she is mourning the loss of it.
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