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Emily DickinsonA Clock stopped—
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1896A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Further Reading & Resources
Related Poems
“Because I could not stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson (1862)
This is one of Dickinson’s most famous poems about Death and afterlife. Unlike “A Clock Stopped—,” where the dead person is personified as a stopped timepiece, here, Death is personified as a courtly gentleman-like entity. He invites the speaker into his carriage to journey with “Immortality” (Line 4). Time is reflected here as in “A Clock stopped—” as the speaker and Death wind up “slowly [driving]” (Line 5) for “centuries” (Line 21). Interestingly, this takes on a sort of vampiric quality of the living dead. The threesome travel across the countryside—past, present, and future—heading toward a never attainable “Eternity” (Line 24).
“I heard a Fly buzz – when I died –” by Emily Dickinson (1863)
In this poem, as in “A Clock stopped—” a person is dying. The “Stillness in the Room / Was like the Stillness in the Air” (Lines 2-3) image echoes the still images of the clock’s figure and its pendulum. This poem, though, is told from the first-person point of view and has a slightly comic tint as the last thing the speaker sees before their death is “a Fly” (Line 12) with its “uncertain stumbling Buzz” (Line 13). This description might echo the speaker’s realization of their own humble status or their uncertainty about the afterlife. It may remind the reader of the theme of “A Clock stopped—,” which is that Death has its own agenda and timeline.
“How many times these low feet staggered” by Emily Dickinson (1861)
In this poem, also written in 1861, Dickinson’s speaker depicts a woman who has died. The poem is similar to “A Clock stopped” in depicting death. As the clock/body is described as having a “pendulum of snow” (Line 11), the woman here has “listless hair” and a “cool forehead” (Line 2). Like the “puppet” of “A Clock stopped—,” the woman’s body cannot be lifted. It’s like “hasps of steel” (Line 4), immobile. The housekeeper did several chores--dusting, cleaning windows, and shooing flies—but now, the outer world takes over as the woman will no longer “stagger” (Line 1) through her day. Death here, as in “A Clock stopped—,” is final.
Further Literary Resources
This up-to-date website details the events and news of the museum in Amherst, Massachusetts that is devoted to Dickinson’s life. Besides this, it gives key information under the “Emily Dickinson” tab about Dickinson herself. You can find a biography of the poet and information about the events that shaped her, including the Calvinist revival of 1840s-1850s and the Civil War. There are biographies of each member of the poet’s family, including her siblings, and her close friend and sister-in-law Susan Gilbert Dickinson. The site also has information on other essential figures like editor Mabel Loomis Todd and potential suitor Otis Phillips Lord. There is information about her poems and letters and tips for reading them. This helps provide the backdrop for Dickinson’s writing of “A Clock stopped –.”
“A bomb in her bosom: Emily Dickinson’s secret life” by Lyndall Gordon (2010)
This article, written for The Guardian newspaper by British biographer Lyndall Gordon, details how Dickinson might have suffered from epilepsy, which may have led to her reluctance to leave her house. She also discusses how perceptions of Dickinson might have been tainted by her brother’s mistress, Mabel Loomis Todd, who despised Susan Gilbert Dickinson, Austin’s wife and Emily’s close friend. She takes to task the “insistent legend” of her as “modest, old-fashioned spinster,” noting that “the bold voice of the poems” speaks against this. “It's a voice we can't ignore, confrontational, even invasive, defying façades with a question about our nature.” This article offers insight into how outside factors might have played a part in the creation of “A Clock stopped—.”
“Publication History of the Works of Emily Dickinson” by Dickinson Electronic Archive (1999)
This unattributed article by the editors on the website details the many different contributions the editors of Emily Dickinson’s poetry made. Starting with Todd and Higginson, moving through Johnson and Franklin into the contemporary feminists who are trying to highlight the Dickinson’s attention to the form on the page, this is an overview of how different editors approached Dickinson’s work. This also explains some of the differences between the variants of the poem.
“Tracking the Origin of The Swiss Clockmaking Industry” by Hamilton Jewelers (2015)
This unattributed blog entry for Hamilton Jewelers briefly details the history of clockmaking and the “rise of Switzerland as the epitome of fine watchmaking.” It refers to how, because of John Calvin’s reformation, jewelry was outlawed but clocks were not. This caused the rise in Swiss clockmaking, with Geneva being the center, as mentioned in “A Clock stopped—.” The article also features photographs of some 19th-century timepieces.
Listen to Poem
The poet, Katherine E. Young, reads “A Clock Stopped—” as part of an all-day reading of Emily Dickinson’s poems for her 184th birthday on December 8, 2014. The reading took place in the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.
Related Titles
By Emily Dickinson
