Lyric Poem · Death & Loss
I felt a Funeral, in my Brain
by Emily Dickinson · 1896
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 —
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“I felt a Funeral, in my Brain” by Emily Dickinson — quilloak.com/poems/i-felt-a-funeral-in-my-brain
Quick facts
- Poem
- I felt a Funeral, in my Brain
- Poet
- Emily Dickinson
- Published
- 1896
- Length
- 20 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Death & Loss, Sad
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 20 lines · 5 quatrains
- Line length
- Lines run 6-8 syllables (median 7). No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
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Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- Emily Dickinson1830–1886
- Source record
- PoetryDBI felt a Funeral, in my Brain by emily-dickinson, PoetryDB transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- 1896
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 b5075fa170a33f83…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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