“I felt a Funeral, in my Brain…” (280) by Emily Dickinson

Found this at the library the other day. Wow.

“I felt a Funeral, in my Brain…” (280)
Emily Dickinson

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 —

—

This is from The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, edited by Thomas H. Johnson, published by Little, Brown & Company, 1960.