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Emily DickinsonA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
“A Clock Stopped—” is a discussion on the hubris of a human’s belief that their life is in their own hands. Control over death through either science, religion, or circumstance is not possible, the speaker here implies. Rather, the Supreme Being—the “Him” (Line 18) of the last line—will always choose when the clock will stop and whether it will be revived.
To begin the poem, the speaker notes “A clock stopped—” (Line 1) but specifies this is not the clock in the home, clarifying it is “Not the Mantel’s” (Line 2). The location of the clock is unspecified, but the idea of the contrast put forth is that the timepiece is a larger, more epic clock. Since clocks have long been symbolic of the passage of time and the ambiguity of fate, this becomes metaphorically indicative of the human lifespan. The stoppage indicates a sense that a death has occurred, a cessation that cannot be undone.
This is shown by the fact that the clock the speaker references cannot be fixed. Even “Geneva’s farthest skill / Can’t put the puppet bowing / That just now dangled still—” (Lines 3-5). Most clocks at the time were made in Switzerland, but not even the best Swiss clockmaker with the utmost “skill” (Line 3) can fix the broken mechanism of the speaker’s clock.
By Emily Dickinson
A Bird, came down the Walk
A Bird, came down the Walk
Emily Dickinson
A narrow Fellow in the Grass (1096)
A narrow Fellow in the Grass (1096)
Emily Dickinson
Because I Could Not Stop for Death
Because I Could Not Stop for Death
Emily Dickinson
"Faith" is a fine invention
"Faith" is a fine invention
Emily Dickinson
Fame Is a Fickle Food (1702)
Fame Is a Fickle Food (1702)
Emily Dickinson
Hope is a strange invention
Hope is a strange invention
Emily Dickinson
"Hope" Is the Thing with Feathers
"Hope" Is the Thing with Feathers
Emily Dickinson
I Can Wade Grief
I Can Wade Grief
Emily Dickinson
I Felt a Cleaving in my Mind
I Felt a Cleaving in my Mind
Emily Dickinson
I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain
I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain
Emily Dickinson
If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking
If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking
Emily Dickinson
If I should die
If I should die
Emily Dickinson
If you were coming in the fall
If you were coming in the fall
Emily Dickinson
I heard a Fly buzz — when I died
I heard a Fly buzz — when I died
Emily Dickinson
I'm Nobody! Who Are You?
I'm Nobody! Who Are You?
Emily Dickinson
Much Madness is divinest Sense—
Much Madness is divinest Sense—
Emily Dickinson
Success Is Counted Sweetest
Success Is Counted Sweetest
Emily Dickinson
Tell all the truth but tell it slant
Tell all the truth but tell it slant
Emily Dickinson
The Only News I Know
The Only News I Know
Emily Dickinson
There is no Frigate like a Book
There is no Frigate like a Book
Emily Dickinson