I felt a Funeral, in my Brain
I felt a Funeral,
in my Brain,
And Mourners to and fro
Kept treading - treading - till it seemed
That Sense was breaking through -
And when they
all were seated,
A Service, like a Drum -
Kept beating - beating - till I thought
My mind was going numb -
And then I heard
them lift a Box
And creak across my Soul
With those same Boots of Lead, again,
Then Space - began to toll,
As all the Heavens
were a Bell,
And Being, but an Ear,
And I, and Silence, some strange Race
Wrecked, solitary, here -
And then a Plank
in Reason, broke,
And I dropped down, and down -
And hit a World, at every plunge,
And Finished knowing - then -
(Emily Dickinson,
1862)
--------------------------
Read more about the poem here.