Dickinson imagines a funeral taking place inside her own mind, with treading mourners, a drumming service and a tolling bell. It is a powerful poem for teaching extended metaphor, repetition and sound. This free worksheet has the full poem with numbered lines, vocabulary, five discussion questions, a writing prompt and an answer key. No signup needed.
Grades 9–12 · Common Core RL.9-10.4, RL.9-10.2, RL.9-10.5 · US Letter PDF, with an answer key on the last page
What’s on the worksheet
Emily Dickinson wrote this poem around 1861. Readers often see it as a description of a mental breakdown, deep grief or losing consciousness, told through the steps of a funeral. Our version follows an early printed text in four quatrains.
Vocabulary
- mourners: people grieving at a funeral
- treading: walking with heavy steps
- service: a religious ceremony
- numb: without feeling
- lead: a heavy gray metal
- toll: to ring slowly, as a bell does for a death
- solitary: alone
Discussion questions
- What is the extended metaphor of the poem?
- Find two examples of repetition in stanzas 1 and 2. What effect do they create?
- What does "boots of lead" suggest about the mourners?
- In stanza 4, "all the heavens were a bell, / And Being but an ear." What is happening to the speaker's senses?
- How does the speaker feel at the end, "Wrecked, solitary, here"?
Writing prompt
Choose a strong feeling (fear, stress, joy) and describe it as an event happening inside your mind, such as a storm, a parade or a game. Keep the metaphor going for at least three stanzas.
The answer key is included in the PDF, on its own page for teachers.