Blog assignment #6

"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 grew 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 but a mound.
Since then 'tis centuries, and yet each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity."

Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts on December 10, 1830. She was a great poet. She lived mostly an introverted and reclusive life. Thought of as an eccentric by the locals, she became known for her penchant for white clothing and her reluctance to greet guests or, later in life, even leave her room. Most reoccurring topics in her works are immortality and death. The poem  shows that the speaker is dead and she's looking back at when she died. (12-13), it symbolizes the fact that her mobility is now restricted because she is now in the grave, which is part of the landscape, and thus, cannot move. Also (17-24), where it says "we paused before a house that seemed A swelling ground' it is meant to symbolize her grave and the "horses heads were toward eternity"  symbolizes the fact that her body is going to be buried, and her soul is going to the afterlife.