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Emily Dickinson Quotes

Because I Could Not Stop for Death

    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 played
    At wrestling in a ring;
    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.

    ~ Emily Dickinson

    If I Can Stop

      If I can stop one heart from breaking,

      I shall not live in vain;

      If I can ease one life the aching,

      Or cool one pain,

      Or help one fainting robin

      Unto his nest again,

      I shall not live in vain.

      ~ Emily Dickinson

      T’is So Much Joy

        ’T is so much joy! ’T is so much joy!

        If I should fail, what poverty!

        And yet, as poor as I

        Have ventured all upon a throw;

        Have gained! Yes! Hesitated so

        This side the victory!

        Life is but life, and death but death!

        Bliss is but bliss, and breath but breath!

        And if, indeed, I fail,

        At least to know the worst is sweet.

        Defeat means nothing but defeat,

        No drearier can prevail!

        And if I gain,—oh, gun at sea,

        Oh, bells that in the steeples be,

        At first repeat it slow!

        For heaven is a different thing

        Conjectured, and waked sudden in,

        And might o’erwhelm me so!

        ~ Emily Dickinson