Because I could not stop for Death

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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 –

We passed the School, where Children strove
At Recess – in the Ring –
We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain –
We passed the Setting Sun –

Or rather – He passed Us –
The Dews drew quivering and Chill –
For only Gossamer, my Gown –
My Tippet – only Tulle –

We paused before a House that seemed
A Swelling of the Ground –
The Roof was scarcely visible –
The Cornice – in the Ground –

Since then – ’tis Centuries – and yet
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses’ Heads
Were toward Eternity –

Emily Dickinson
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2 thoughts on “Because I could not stop for Death”

  2. Wow – I hopped over to the link about Emily Dickinson’s life, and dropped down into that rabbit hole for a good half hour. 😉

    Fantastic – it was like a novelette length biography! I’ve always been impressed with her, though I always wondered about why she never published her poetry. It’s hard to imagine what kind of an impact that would have had on her life, particularly since she seems such an independent and free thinking woman.

    One of her poems that I had to memorize in high school is one of the only I still remember. (One wonders if kids still even memorize poetry, or the Gettysburg Address, or the Preamble to the Constitution… like I did, back in the 80s…) I have to admit to having to peak for the last stanza. 😉

    Hope is the thing with feathers
    That perches in the soul
    That sings the tune without the words
    and never stops at all.

    And sweetest in the gale is heard
    And sore must be the storm
    That could abash the little bird
    That kept so many warm.

    I’ve heard it in the chillest land
    And on the strangest sea
    Yet, never in extremity,
    It asked a crumb of me.

    (FWIW, the other poem I mostly recall is Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”.)

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