I Felt a Funeral in My Brain

By Emily Dickenson

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 -