1. I felt a Funeral, in my Brain (280)
I felt a Funeral, in my Brain (280)

2. Vocabulary Words
mourners (n.) – people expressing grief or sorrow for the dead
• service (n.) – a form followed in worship or in a religious ceremony
Vocabulary to teach (may include direct word work and/or questions)
• to and fro (idiom) – back and forth
• sense (n.) – perception or awareness of the mind often produced through the 
senses: touch, sight,
smell, taste, hearing. Can also refer to moral sense or awareness.
• treading (v.) – stepping, walking, or trampling so as to press, crush, or injure 
something
• solitary (adj.) – alone; without companions
• plank (n.) – a long, flat piece of timber, thicker than a board
• reason (n.) – the mental powers concerned with forming conclusions, 
judgments, or inferences;
sound judgment; normal or sound powers of mind; sanity

3. Highlight the sensory words Dickinson uses.
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 –
Highlight the 
sensory words 
Dickinson 
uses.

4. Work in pairs to answer the following questions about the poem
Work in pairs to answer the 
following questions about the 
poem. These questions are 
designed to help you gain a deeper 
understanding of the poem.

5. Homework
What might the "Box" (9) contain? 
What evidence from the poem 
supports your thinking?

6. Take a walk 
around the 
classroom and 
answer the 
questions on each 
chart paper.

7. Based on your observations, 
determine the central idea in "I Felt 
a Funeral, in my Brain."