The social commentary of Phoebe Bridgers’s “I Know the End,” has a direct correlation to Emily Dickinson’s social commentary “I felt a Funeral in my Brain.”

Off of Bridger’s Punisher album, “I Know the End,” is a captivating and remarkable take on depression and death. More specifically, the fantasy of death and the yearning to escape are the pillars of the poem and song—making uncanny parallels and taking listeners on an emotionally exhilarating journey. 

The song carries listeners through an eerily apocalyptic story in which a speaker fights for her life, but knows her life is over—there is nothing she can do: the speaker knows the end. 

Towards the beginning of the song Bridgers sings, “When I get back, I’ll lay around, then I’ll get up, and lay back down,” shifting dramatically from a melancholy mood to anger. This line encapsulates the feelings of depression experienced by the speaker, but more so how draining and unmotivating the waves of sadness the speaker experiences truly are. This quote’s imagery pulls the listener into a sinking feeling, alongside the speaker—a feeling familiar to many who experience feelings of depression or sadness in general. Paralleling to Dickinson’s, “And I dropped down, and down / and hit a World, at every plunge,” Bridgers’s line similarly pulls listeners under and portrays someone who has no motivation to get up—no motivation to live. Someone being placed underground in their coffin is a true representation of the end. 

Towards the end of the song, Bridgers switches to complete anger and expresses no remorse for her life ending. The apocalyptic feel becomes very dominant. She states, “I’m not afraid to disappear, the billboard said, the end is near.”  This vision of the billboard showing that the end is near directly relates to the last few lines of the poem, stating “And I dropped down, and down — / And hit a World, at every plunge, / And Finished knowing —then—.” The speaker of the poem appears to know that her mind is turning on her and her reason is gone. Her mind is telling her that the end is near. 

In an interview with Genius, Bridgers says it is about “Just kind of being at peace with the end of the world” This correlates with the speaker of the poem because the speaker is also at peace with their feelings. The poem reads in a way that sets you up to think the speaker is okay with their ending. They aren’t fighting for their life or their happiness, they are okay with their ending.