I felt a funeral in my brain

Aaron Copland

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.