Emily Dickinson

Because I could not stop for Death —

Because I could not stop for Death—

He kindly stopped for me—

The Carriage held but just Ourselves—

And Immortality.

In addition to appearing in hymns, common meter (alternating lines of four and three beats) is typical in a more narrative form of poem, the ballad. In “Because I could not stop for Death—,” Dickinson uses her characteristic rhythm for the purpose of telling a story, one that follows the speaker on a strange and supernatural journey.

We slowly drove—He knew no haste

And I had put away

My labor and my leisure too,

For His Civility—

Dickinson’s personified Death is like a genteel suitor. When he comes to take the speaker out for a carriage ride, his demeanor is kind and polite.

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—

When the poem arrives at the grave, Dickinson describes it as a house, one that is neither cozy nor fearsome. The speaker does not express contentment with this home in the afterlife, nor does she admit any distaste for it. Her only comment is about the new way she experiences time.

Since then—’tis Centuries—and yet

Feels shorter than the Day

I first surmised the Horses’ Heads

Were toward Eternity—

Emily Dickinson. "Because I could not stop for Death—" and "I heard a Fly buzz—when I died—." Reprinted by permission of the publishers and the Trustees of Amherst College from The Poems of Emily Dickinson, edited by Thomas H. Johnson, Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Copyright © 1951, 1955 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Copyright © renewed 1979, 1983 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Copyright © 1914, 1918, 1919, 1924, 1929, 1930, 1932, 1935, 1937, 1942 by Martha Dickinson Bianchi. Copyright © 1952, 1957, 1958, 1963, 1965 by Mary L. Hampson.