Because I Could Not Stop for Death by Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson’s most celebrated masterwork, Because I Could Not Stop for Death is often taught in high school grades 11-12. Dickinson’s imperfectly rhyming quatrains, symbols, imagery, and wordplay are honest and inspiring.

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 labour, 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.