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 strove
At Recess – in the Ring –
We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain –
We passed the Setting Sun –
This scene seems almost eerily normal. At first, we’re in a carriage with death that doesn’t seem at all normal, then we’re looking at something totally familiar. The mixing of the unreal and real makes the poem seem even stranger. It also enhances the fact that death and dying seem like just another ordinary part of life.
Because I Could Not Stop for Death