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“Because I could not stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson (1862)
This is one of Dickinson’s most famous poems about Death and afterlife. Unlike “A Clock Stopped—,” where the dead person is personified as a stopped timepiece, here, Death is personified as a courtly gentleman-like entity. He invites the speaker into his carriage to journey with “Immortality” (Line 4). Time is reflected here as in “A Clock stopped—” as the speaker and Death wind up “slowly [driving]” (Line 5) for “centuries” (Line 21). Interestingly, this takes on a sort of vampiric quality of the living dead. The threesome travel across the countryside—past, present, and future—heading toward a never attainable “Eternity” (Line 24).
“I heard a Fly buzz – when I died –” by Emily Dickinson (1863)
In this poem, as in “A Clock stopped—” a person is dying. The “Stillness in the Room / Was like the Stillness in the Air” (Lines 2-3) image echoes the still images of the clock’s figure and its pendulum. This poem, though, is told from the first-person point of view and has a slightly comic tint as the last thing the speaker sees before their death is “a Fly” (Line 12) with its “uncertain stumbling Buzz” (Line 13).
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