Songs

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 labour, and my leisure too
For His Civility –

We passed the school, where children played,
Their lessons scarcely done
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.