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2.2.8.1: Because I could not stop for Death

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    Because I could not stop for Death

    Because I could not stop for Death License: Public Domain Emily Dickinson

    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 played,

    Their lessons scarcely done;

    We passed the fields of gazing grain,

    We passed the setting sun.

    We paused before a house that seemed

    A swelling of the ground;

    The roof was scarcely visible,

    The cornice but a mound.

    Since then 't is centuries; but each

    Feels shorter than the day

    I first surmised the horses' heads

    Were toward eternity.

    This page titled 2.2.8.1: Because I could not stop for Death is shared under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Anita Turlington, Matthew Horton, Karen Dodson, Laura Getty, Kyounghye Kwon, Georgia, & Laura Ng (GALILEO Open Learning Materials) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.