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 -
Because I could not stop for Death -
He kindly stopped for me -
The Carriage held but just Ourselves -
And Immortality.
We slowly drove — He knew no haste
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too,
For His Civility...
My life closed twice before its close;
It yet remains to see
If Immortality unveil
A third event to me,
So huge, so hopeless to conceive
As these that twice befell.
Parting is all we know of heaven,
And all we need of hell.
A word is dead
When it is said,
Some say.
I say it just
Begins to live
That day.
Drama's Vitallest Expression is the Common Day
That arise and set about Us —
Other Tragedy
Perish in the Recitation —
This — the best enact
When the Audience is scattered
And the Boxes shut.
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