Dana Levin is the author of five books poetry. Her latest is Now Do You Know Where You Are (Copper Canyon), a 2022 New York Times Notable Book and NPR “Book We Love.” Levin teaches for the Bennington Writing Seminars, the MFA program at Bennington College, and serves as Distinguished Writer in Residence at Maryville University in St. Louis. Her first book of prose, House of Feels, comes out from Graywolf Press in 2027.
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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 -
Among the wild number of musical versions of “I felt a Funeral in my Brain” is my favorite and one done in collaboration with the museum: Andrew Bird’s song/music video for “I felt a Funeral in my Brain” (ft. Phoebe Bridgers)
Happily, you can watch the full video (!) of the brilliant talk for the Emily Dickinson Museum that Dana did with Ayelet Amitay (“The Interior and the Other,” about the intersection of poetry and psychotheraphy) that Dana references in our conversation.
People and concepts mentioned in the interview:
Paradise Lost, John Milton
Katie Peterson’s review of Dana’s book Sky Burial
Fact Check:
The insane asylum that Dana mentioned was in Northampton – a few miles away from Amherst. Here is a little bit about it.
A more complete version of a quote I mention: “Pardon my sanity, Mrs. Holland, in a world insane, and love me if you will, for I had rather be loved than to be called a king in earth, or a lord in Heaven.” Letter 185 to Elizabeth Holland, from August 1856(?)
Another quote mentioned was “God keep me from what they call households.” Here’s the fuller context-- “My kitchen I think I called it, God forbid that it was, or shall be my own – God keep me from what they call households, except that bright one of ‘faith’!” Letter 36 to Abiah Root, May 1850.
Recorded February 4, 2026.
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