Emily Dickinson capitalizes A LOT of random words in this poem. At first, I thought they were just that, random. Then I started looking at which were capitalized and which were not. All the capitalized words, such as: Funeral, Brain, Bell, Drum, Box, Soul, Boots of Lead, and Space. These are all not necessarily objects, but they are all nouns that are used as events of objects that do something in or to the speaker's brain. In this sense, they are all characters, which is odd, considering none of them are people.
This is a use of personification. For example: "Service, like a Drum- kept beating-beating". The service in the brain of the speaker is beating the inside of his/her head. This is an action that a service, technically, cannot perform. Again: "Then Space- began to toll,". Space cannot 'toll'. Dickinson uses many words that are typically not subjects as subjects that commit actions that have sensory effects on the speaker. The personification lends an odd, impersonal tone to the speaker's own funeral. The fact that no people are involved in the funeral only make it more mournful.
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