I felt a funeral in my brain
I felt a funeral in my brain,And mourners, to and fro,Kept treading, treading, till it seemedThat sense was breaking through.
And when they all were seated,A service like a drumKept beating, beating, till I thoughtMy mind was going numb.
And then I heard them lift a box,And creak across my soulWith 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.
Words in this poem
- creak v. i.
- To make a prolonged sharp grating or ssqueaking sound, as by the friction of hard substances; as, shoes creak. [OE. creken, prob. of imitative origin; cf. E. crack, and. D. kreiken to crackle, chirp.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
I felt a funeral in my brain is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems by Emily Dickinson, Three Series, Complete, Project Gutenberg ebook #12242; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Emily Dickinson, I felt a funeral in my brain, in Poems (1890–1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12242, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dickinson-poems/i-felt-a-funeral-in-my-brain.html, id L19060.
Form and metre
I felt a funeral in my brain is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
See other poems in common measure.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 2 -A-A seated · drumA · thought · numbA
- 3 -A-A box · soulA · again · tollA
- 4 -A-A bell · earA · race · hereA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I felt a funeral in my brain, | 9 | ···/˘˘··· |
| And mourners, to and fro, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Kept treading, treading, till it seemed | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| That sense was breaking through. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And when they all were seated, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| A service like a drum | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Kept beating, beating, till I thought | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| My mind was going numb. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And then I heard them lift a box, | 8 | ········ |
| And creak across my soul | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| With those same boots of lead, again. | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Then space began to toll | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| As all the heavens were a bell, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And Being but an ear, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And I and silence some strange race, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Wrecked, solitary, here. | 6 | ·/˘·˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.