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 strove
At Recess – in the Ring –
We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain –
We passed the Setting Sun –
Or rather – He passed us –
The Dews drew quivering and chill –
For only Gossamer, my Gown –
My Tippet – only Tulle –
We paused before a House that seemed
A Swelling of the Ground –
The Roof was scarcely visible –
The Cornice – in the Ground –
Since then – 'tis Centuries – and yet
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses' Heads
Dickinson was an agoraphobic and hardly, if at all, left her house for the final 20 years of her life. Naturally, this would bring about an increased amount of anxiety and depression from staying away from people for such an extended period of time. Her poems are greatly riddled with thoughts of death and morbid mindsets that she does not necessarily make out to be negative. Dickinson is incredibly comfortable with the idea of death, personifying it as a gentleman and using her gravestone as a house. She attempts to make it clear that death is not to be feared since it is a natural part of the human life cycle. When she says they “paused” in front of her resting place, she makes it clear that that is all they did,  pause.  She therefore reminds readers that, in a Christian sense, when someone dies the do not reside under their gravestone but rather in the “eternity” that is heaven. Dickinson does not deny the spontaneity of death, nor does she mention the sadness that comes out of it. Rather, she plays death off as nothing more than a part to life and no more scary than going for a carriage ride. 

Because I Could Not Stop for Death