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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.
A. Copland sets stanzas 1-4
About the headline (FAQ)
Confirmed with Poems by Emily Dickinson. Third Series, ed by Mabel Loomis Todd, Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1896.
Note: a later edition removes the word "again" from stanza 3, line 3 and adds the following stanza to the end:
And then a plank in reason, broke, And I dropped down and down — And hit a world at every plunge, And finished knowing — then —
Text Authorship:
- by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, appears in Poems: Third Series, in 4. Time and Eternity, no. 30, first published 1896 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Ernst Bacon (1898 - 1990), "Treading", 196-? [sung text not yet checked]
- by Alison Bauld (b. 1944), "I Felt a Funeral in My Brain", first performed 2024 [ soprano and piano ], from I Shall Not Live in Vain, no. 5 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Aaron Copland (1900 - 1990), "I felt a funeral in my brain", 1949-50, stanzas 1-4 [ mezzo-soprano, piano ], from Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson, no. 9 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Misty L. Dupuis (b. 1972), "I Felt a Funeral in My Brain" [ soprano and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Michael M. Horvit (b. 1932), "I felt a funeral in my brain", published 1970 [ soprano and piano ], from Three Songs of Elegy [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , "Vaig sentir un funeral al meu cap", copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Walter A. Aue) , copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , copyright © 2011, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 16
Word count: 92
Begräbnis fühlt’ ich im Gehirn: Trauernde her und hin bewegten und bewegten sich, bis sich ergab ein Sinn. Und als sie Platz genommen, tönt dumpfer Trommelklang: es schlug und schlug bis es mir schien, es raubt mir den Verstand. Dann hört’ ich, wie ein Sarg sich hob, wie Stiefelknarren stach durchs Herze mir, und dann im All ein voll Geläut anbrach. Die Himmel nur ein Glockenton, ein Hören nur mein Sein, mein Ich, die Ruh ein fremd Geschlecht, gestrandet und allein.
About the headline (FAQ)
Translation of the stanza added to the end in a later edition:
Dann brach der Dachstuhl der Vernunft und stürzt’ und stürzt’ hinab, schlug Sturz um Sturz auf eine Welt bis all Erkennen schwand.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from English to German (Deutsch) copyright © 2015 by Bertram Kottmann, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you must ask the copyright-holder(s) directly for permission. If you receive no response, you must consider it a refusal.
Bertram Kottmann. Contact: BKottmann (AT) t-online.de
If you wish to commission a new translation, please contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net
Based on:
- a text in English by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, appears in Poems: Third Series, in 4. Time and Eternity, no. 30, first published 1896
This text was added to the website: 2015-06-10
Line count: 16
Word count: 81