Lyric Poem · Death & Loss
Because I could not stop for Death
by Emily Dickinson · 1890
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.
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“Because I could not stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson — quilloak.com/poems/because-i-could-not-stop-for-death
Quick facts
- Poem
- Because I could not stop for Death
- Poet
- Emily Dickinson
- Published
- 1890
- Length
- 20 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem, Narrative Poem
- Themes
- Death & Loss, Life
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 20 lines · 5 quatrains
- Line length
- Consistent with common metre. Alternating eight- and six-syllable lines — the hymn stanza (8.6.8.6), the most-used quatrain in English verse.
Want the rules this form is measured against? Read what makes a lyric poem, or run your own draft through the form checker to see the same measurements on your lines. How we measure · Report a mistake
Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the cited edition and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- Emily Dickinson1830–1886
- Source record
- WikisourceBecause I could not stop for Death by emily-dickinson, Wikisource transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- 1890
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 4fc878c9fed19689…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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