象狄更生的許多其它作品一樣，本詩並無深奧的哲理，隻是寫了一個死的體驗。本詩的可讀性在於：她把這個體驗寫得如此逼真，如此動感，如此深化，就像真地發生過一樣。本詩開頭，她就用一個醫學名詞brain（而不是mind），讓你覺得那葬禮就在她腦子裏。然後在每一小節的結尾處，她又讓這個葬禮不斷地擴大，擴大，再擴大：先從她的頭腦裏掙脫出去進了房間，然後從房間裏被抬到墓地，然後從墓地擴大到天穹與大地，然後從大地墜落下去，跌跌撞撞，隨著知覺的消失而最終摔到最底層。隨著葬禮的不斷擴大，她的知覺就那樣一點點地消失殆盡。
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 -
我感到頭顱裏有葬禮在舉行
艾米莉•狄更生
我感到頭顱裏有葬禮在舉行，
吊唁者正走來走去
不停地踩呀踩------直到好像
這種感覺掙出頭去------
他們一個個全部就座完畢後，
接著的祈禱像擂鼓------
不停地敲呀------直到我覺得
我的心智幾近麻木------
而後我聽到他們抬起一箱子
咯吱吱踏過我魂靈
他們穿的還是那種鉛底靴子，
不久四周喪鍾鳴起，
整個天穹狀成一口巨大鍾鈴，
人人豎起耳朵凝聽，
而我，連同幽寂，已成異類
無非孤魂殘骸而已------
此刻，理性的托板已經斷裂，
我一路墜呀，墜呀 ------
每次下墜，都撞著一個世界，
直到知覺喪失殆盡------而後------
徐英才譯
