Welcome aboard, Drow! Seems you chose a rather stimulating thread to make your entrance! Enjoy!

I've always been fascinated with Emily Dickinson, but until I googled this with a dumb luck "Emily Dickinson but just" trying to find another instance in her poetry I seem to recall of her using "but just", I stumbled upon information about this poem totally new to me...and I've seen Julie Harris's "The Belle of Amherst" numerous times, and you'd think this would be mentioned...maybe it was but I somehow overlooked it. Anyway this poem, usually titled in anthologies, "Because I Could Not Stop For Death," is actually the epitaph her sister had engraved on Emily's tombstone entitled "E.D. Called Back." And editors later did some debatable polishing, and deleted a whole stanza which is included here in the original text (don't'cha love editors! hi wow!). Here it is with the introductory paragraph. The site, http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ihas/poet/dickinson.html, provides the complete story, some more insightful but brief background on Ms. Dickinson, and a photo of her gravesite.

To the tiny New England graveyard, across the fields where
in girlhood Emily Dickinson had watched the funeral
corteges wend their way, a solemn procession carried the
white-robed remains of the poet, who died in her home on
May 15, 1886. The epitaph her sister Lavinia later had
inscribed on her tombstone-- "E.D. Called Back"--tersely
reminds visitors of a life lived in realms beyond the
temporal.

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 strove
At Recess -- in the Ring --
We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain --
We passed the Setting Sun --

Or rather -- He passed Us --
The Dews drew quivering and chill --
For only Gossamer, 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 --

Since then --'tis Centuries -- and yet
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses Heads
Were toward Eternity --

(there is a dividing graphic included here, so I'm not sure if this is an addendum to the actual epitaph, or something the writer chose to finish the piece)


Why -- do they shut me out of Heaven?
Did I sing -- too loud?
But -- I can sing a little "Minor,"
Timid as a Bird!
Wouldn't the angels try me --
Just -- once more --
Just -- see -- if I troubled them
But don't -- shut the door,!
Oh, if I -- were the Gentlemen
In the "White Robes"
And they -- were the little Hand -- that
knocked --
Could --I forbid?

[edit: here's another source that validates this original form of the poem..."always get two sources!" ]
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_2/dickinson.html

[Edit:] The only text to appear on Emily's tombstone as her epitaph is E.D. Called Back. Please see Emily's Epitaph--correction post addendum for clarification. 2/12