Because I could not stop for Death

Because I [could]1 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 labour, and my leisure too
For His Civility --

We passed the school, where children played,
[ At wrestling in a ring]2
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 'tis centuries; but each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity.

Translation(s): CAT FRE GER GER ITA

List of language codes

About the headline (FAQ)

Authorship

• by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886), no title, appears in Poems of Emily Dickinson, first published 1890 [ author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

• by John Coolidge Adams (b. 1947), "Because I could not stop for Death", 1980-1, first performed 1981 [chorus and orchestra], from Harmonium, no. 2. [
   text not verified 
  ]
• by Gary Bachlund , "Because I could not stop for death", 1990. [high voice and piano] [
   text verified 1 time
  ]
• by Ernst Bacon (1898 - 1990), "Immortality", 1978. [
   text not verified 
  ]
• by Charles Jason Bechtold , "Because I couuld not stop for death" [SATB chorus a cappella] [
   text verified 1 time
  ]
• by Fania Chapiro , "Because I could not stop for death", 1988, from Three songs of death, no. 3. [
   text not verified 
  ]
• by Aaron Copland (1900 - 1990), "The chariot", 1949-50, published 1951 [mezzo-soprano, piano], from Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson, no. 12. [
   text verified 1 time
  ]
• by Leslie Crabtree (b. 1941), "Because I could not stop for Death", 2007. [voice and piano] [
   text verified 1 time
  ]
• by Sergius Kagen (1909 - 1964), "Because I would not stop for Death", published 1951. [medium voice, piano] [
   text verified 1 time
  ]
• by Tim Silva , "Because I couuld not stop for death", 2008. [women's chorus a cappella] [
   text not verified 
  ]

Another version of this text exists in the database.

• Go to the text. [ view differences ]
  

Available translations, adaptations, and transliterations (if applicable):

• FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , title 1: "La voiture", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• GER German (Deutsch) (Walter A. Aue) , copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , title 1: "La carrozza", copyright © 2011, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• GER German (Deutsch) (Bertram Kottmann) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Text added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

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