"Because I could not stop for Death," by Emily Dickinson
Author: Emily Dickinson
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He kindly stopped for me –
The Carriage held but just Ourselves –
And Immortality.
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 –
Reprinted by permission of the publishers and the Trustees of Amherst College from THE POEMS OF EMILY DICKINSON: READING EDITION, edited by Ralph W. Franklin, ed., Cambridge, Mass.:
The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Copyright © 1998, 1999 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College.
Copyright © 1951, 1955, 1979, 1983 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College.
Source: The Poems of Emily Dickinson, edited by R.W. Franklin (Harvard University Press, 1999)
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She is describes how you cannot control when you die. How death comes when it wants to. Carriages are meant to carry people. What could the carriage represent?
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The speaker having a life could be like a tool for death. It sets up and creates death’s job. To remove the living from the Earth.
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How there are still people that are alive. Death has not come for them yet. They are still “striving” aka living.
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Or the speaker’s old memories of her life. She could be looking back on everything that happened. Everything that she used to do.
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i think the house represents a grave or a hole in the ground.
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what does surmised mean and how can you do it to a horse?
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