The poetry of Emily Dickinson is studied like the works of William Shakespeare, as timeless and perfect works of art, gracing the canon. This paper will analyze in detail eight of Dickinson’s poems which have been classified as “time†poems. The poems to be discussed are: “ I like to see it lap the Miles – “; “Because I could not stop for Death – “; “The Heart asks Pleasure- first- “; “After great pain, a formal feeling comeâ€; “There’s a certain Slant of lightâ€; I felt a Cleaving in my Mindâ€; “The first Day’s Night had come – “; and “Pain- expands the Timeâ€.“I like to see it lap the Miles†is considered a time poem by many Dickinson scholars because it tracks the daily route of a train. Its speaker, arguably the author, watches a train make its scheduled runs and stops through the mountains. The train, an unlikely subject for Dickinson, who refers mostly to nature or the natural in her poems, seems to take on characteristics much like a horse.
