At Recess – in the Ring -
We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain -
We passed the Setting Sun -
We passed the Setting Sun -
It occurs to me that Dickinson’s choice of slant rhymes (Ring and Sun) also represents anticipated cognitive shift.
In the beginning of the poem, the speaker portrays the carriage as being in motion, slowly but surely passing the gazing grain, the school, and the sun, but then as if the speaker has caught herself, she reverses her perspective: “Or rather – He passed Us -”.
Notice too that this line has syllables while the second line has eight: “The Dews drew quivering and Chill -”.
Rather than the default meter with eight then six syllables, it is six then eight–it helps reinforce the reversal of perspective–instead of viewing Death and herself as passing the setting sun, it is the sun passing them–they are in the presence of immortality and move slower than a day–and to borrow a theme from Star Trek, all Death, the speaker, and Immortality are out of phase of Time.
She thereon returned to the usual eight-then-six construction, with another off-rhyme to warn of another cognitive shift:
For only Gossamers, 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 -
To reinforce again the idea of being out of phase of Time, she explains as Data would in Time’s Arrow:
Since then – ’tis Centuries – and yet
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses’ Heads
Were toward Eternity -
I don’t know if I am being stupid or not, in venturing this guesswork, but I can understand why “Because I could not stop for Death” has been endlessly unpacked and is regarded as the one of the most memorable and favorited of many great poems.
