Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just
And Immortality.
We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put
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 seemedA swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.
Since then 't is centuries; but
Feels shorter than the dayI first surmised the horses'
Were toward eternity.
Early editors of this poem dropped the fourth stanza, which is, unfortunately, reproduced widely without it:
Or rather, he passed us;
The dews grew quivering and chill,
For only gossamer my gown,
My tippet only tulle.
