Because I could not stop for Death

Emily Dickinson · written c. 1862-1863; published 1890

Catalog grade guidance: 9–12

20 content lines · 107 words · Est. recitation about 1 min 5 sec (approx.)

Public-domain text for reading and recitation practice. Source: Project Gutenberg #12242: Poems by Emily Dickinson, Three Series, Complete (First Series, ed. Mabel Loomis Todd and T. W. Higginson, 1890), poem XXVII, titled "The Chariot".Estimated time uses ~120 words/minute plus short pauses—not a contest rule.

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.