John Green Reads Poetry

“It’s a very important poem to me. Collin said earlier that he felt in a … way that poetry has saved his life. I feel the same way. I feel I have been crazy for most of my life — there are more precise terms, but that is the one that I identify with the most and at times very-very in a way that was extremely disabling for me and this this poem among others has made me feel less alone so much for so long for you know for 20 years of my life since I first read it, and I am very grateful to it and for this. It’s usually called ‘340’ (she wasn’t the best at titles)…”

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 –