Morning Poetry with Emily Dickinson

My wife and I were cleaning out the home office and got to thinning out my collection of books. Trust me, it needed to happen. There is a core group of books I must have around and I feel like I got back to that. Cut the white noise out. One of those books I used to read all the time found its way back into my hands, The Complete Works of Emily Dickinson. I love it. I love her. She was the poet that first grabbed me and probably the one I aspire to write the most like. Will I ever be able to tell you why, probably not. Its just that feeling you get when you know your reading or viewing something special. So I went back to the poem. The one that I got down and dirty with to figure out that meaning of what poems were all about. And here it is. Discussion will follow if time permitting. Enjoy. There is a lot packed into this one, so read it a couple of times and think of the imagery used.

Because I could not stop for Death
by Emily Dickinson


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.

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
Were toward eternity.