象狄更生的许多其它作品一样，本诗并无深奥的哲理，只是写了一个死的体验。本诗的可读性在于：她把这个体验写得如此逼真，如此动感，如此深化，就像真地发生过一样。本诗开头，她就用一个医学名词brain（而不是mind），让你觉得那葬礼就在她脑子里。然后在每一小节的结尾处，她又让这个葬礼不断地扩大，扩大，再扩大：先从她的头脑里挣脱出去进了房间，然后从房间里被抬到墓地，然后从墓地扩大到天穹与大地，然后从大地坠落下去，跌跌撞撞，随着知觉的消失而最终摔到最底层。随着葬礼的不断扩大，她的知觉就那样一点点地消失殆尽。
I felt a Funeral, in my Brain, (340)
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 -
我感到头颅里有葬礼在举行
艾米莉•狄更生
我感到头颅里有葬礼在举行，
吊唁者正走来走去
不停地踩呀踩------直到好像
这种感觉挣出头去------
他们一个个全部就座完毕后，
接着的祈祷像擂鼓------
不停地敲呀------直到我觉得
我的心智几近麻木------
而后我听到他们抬起一箱子
咯吱吱踏过我魂灵
他们穿的还是那种铅底靴子，
不久四周丧钟鸣起，
整个天穹状成一口巨大钟铃，
人人竖起耳朵凝听，
而我，连同幽寂，已成异类
无非孤魂残骸而已------
此刻，理性的托板已经断裂，
我一路坠呀，坠呀 ------
每次下坠，都撞着一个世界，
直到知觉丧失殆尽------而后------
徐英才译
