Poetry Slam!: "Because I Could Not Stop for Death" by Emily Dickinson

The speaker of Dickinson’s poem imagines riding in a carriage with Death and viewing scenes out of the window. Read the text here.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. immortality
    perpetual life after death
    The carriage held but just ourselves
    And Immortality.
  2. haste
    a condition of urgency making it necessary to hurry
    We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
  3. labor
    productive work, especially physical work done for wages
    And I had put away
    My labor, and my leisure too,
    For his civility.
  4. leisure
    time available for ease and relaxation
    And I had put away
    My labor, and my leisure too,
    For his civility.
  5. civility
    the act of showing regard for others
    And I had put away
    My labor, and my leisure too,
    For his civility.
  6. gaze
    look at with fixed eyes
    We passed the fields of gazing grain,
  7. pause
    interrupt an activity temporarily before continuing
    We paused before a house that seemed
    A swelling of the ground
  8. swelling
    something that bulges out or projects from its surroundings
    We paused before a house that seemed
    A swelling of the ground
  9. scarcely
    almost not
    The roof was scarcely visible,
    The cornice but a mound.
  10. visible
    capable of being seen or open to easy view
    The roof was scarcely visible,
    The cornice but a mound.
  11. cornice
    a molding between the ceiling and the top of a wall
    The roof was scarcely visible,
    The cornice but a mound.
  12. mound
    structure consisting of an artificial heap or bank usually of earth or stones
    The roof was scarcely visible,
    The cornice but a mound.
  13. century
    a period of 100 years
    Since then 't is centuries
  14. surmise
    infer from incomplete evidence
    but each
    Feels shorter than the day
    I first surmised the horses’ heads
    Were toward eternity.
  15. eternity
    time without end
    but each
    Feels shorter than the day
    I first surmised the horses’ heads
    Were toward eternity.
Created on Tue Apr 09 15:10:11 EDT 2013 (updated Mon Apr 02 09:41:28 EDT 2018)

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