Talk:Because I could not stop for Death

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This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 15 January 2019 and 9 May 2019. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Melida18.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 15:30, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Untitled

I would suggest locking this article. Someone redid the words to make it about Death raping her. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.58.17.211 (talk) 18:25, 1 October 2011 (UTC)

I would suggest adding a mention of the mouse hover text of this XKCD, which reads:

I learned from Achewood that since this poem is in ballad meter, it can be sung to the tune of Gilligan's Island. Since then, try as I might, I haven't ONCE been able to read it normally.

--Sycomonkey (talk) 05:41, 3 September 2010 (UTC)

I would suggest waiting a few days to see if it still seems like a good idea, rather than getting into the seemingly inevitable revert wars, resulting in protection of the page, which seem to happen to any page on a subject mentioned in xkcd! Actually, as huge of an xkcd fan as I am, I'm not sure that needs to be here--it's a pretty straightforward conclusion if you read both the poem and the page on Ballad Meter. In fact, if it should go anywhere, it should probably go there; perhaps something to the effect of, "the words to a verse in ballad meter can be readily put to the tune to any song in ballad meter, with the result that Amazing Grace can be sung to the tune to Gilligan's Island or vice versa." Vykk (talk) 13:57, 3 September 2010 (UTC)

Because ballad meter is so general, it can also be sung to the tune of the The Mickey Mouse Club Show themesong. Mentioned by Garrison Keillor on A Prairie Home Companion. I think this should go into the article, then if a reader finds it interesting they can follow the link to Ballad Meter. Chiverisimilidude (talk) 18:09, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

Multiple versions of the poem

Has anyone else noticed how greatly the version presented here differs from other versions, specifically on Bartleby http://www.bartleby.com/113/4027.html? Notice "wrestling in a ring" and the fact that it is missing a whole stanza! Could different publications account for such a difference? 24.136.246.107 (talk) 22:37, 25 October 2010 (UTC)

i need the meaning of this poem. —unsigned comment by 66.193.49.130 (talk) 07:20, 6 October 2006.

Reinmuller FDC - "Contains her "Because I could not stop for Death" poem on the front, and a biographical sketch of Emily Dickinson inside." [1]

i need the meaning of this poem. —unsigned comment by 66.193.49.130 (talk) 07:20, 6 October 2006.

Reinmuller FDC - "Contains her "Because I could not stop for Death" poem on the front, and a biographical sketch of Emily Dickinson inside." [2]

Variations in Texts

"Has anyone else noticed ..." Yes, this version differs from the text presented in Wikisource. One certain error is the semi-colon which should come after 'done' and not before it.

The Chariot

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,

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.

Emily Dickinson

--Steve (talk) 23:57, 11 September 2012 (UTC)--Steve (talk) 23:57, 11 September 2012 (UTC)

1. There are several versions of some of Dickinson's poems. In the first incomplete editions of her poems published, they were all edited, some lines severely so. In 1998, Ralph W. Franklin published a complete collection of her poems. He sorted them as chronologically as he could by examining marks on the papers, etc. Most importantly, though, he faithfully transcribed each poem and fully restored all the original spellings, punctuations, and spaces. He even had custom dashes made to mimic the various lengths of those that Dickinson used in her writing. The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Variorum Edition (Harvard University Press, 1998). Therefore, when you write a Dickinson poem into Wikipedia, you should note the version from which you drew.

2. Dickinson did not title her poems. According to this analysis on Owlcation by Linda Sue Grimes, Emily Dickinson's "Snow flakes.":

"Emily Dickinson's Titles

Emily Dickinson did not provide titles to her 1,775 poems; therefore, each poem's first line becomes the title. According to the MLA Style Manual: "When the first line of a poem serves as the title of the poem, reproduce the line exactly as it appears in the text." APA does not address this issue."

The titles are frequently seen listed as the first line of the poem, of course, and with all punctuations and spaces intact. For example: "Snow flakes."; '"'Because I could not stop for Death –"; It was not Death, for I stood up,".

Thank you for your time, Wordreader (talk) 16:46, 28 September 2021 (UTC)