I Heard A Funeral In My Head

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 – 

Dickinson uses imagery to convey the idea that the speaker's surroundings irritate her with all that is going on. The speaker further uses repetition with the words "treading" and "beating" to suggest her annoyance with the noises surrounding her in life. We think that she believes death should be peaceful, and she yearns for it.