Metaphor in Dickinson's Head

Making no question as to her technique, Emily Dickinson starts off her poem with "I felt a funeral, in my Brain." Since it is impossible to have a funeral in her head, she is trying to create an effect. Talking about this in my small group, we were able to decipher this curious metaphorical poem. Dickinson indicates that she, or whoever the character, is at their own funeral in their own coffin. She goes through the bell tolling and other ceremonious funeral activities, when she finally speaks on her being dropped in the ground and the "Plank of Reason, broke" and she falls farther into the world. What we discussed and decided was that Dickinson is talking about losing her sanity. She loses Reason and is falling deeper and deeper into becoming insane and crazy. This funeral metaphor is drastically better than if she was straight forward; she creates a more serious tone.