Because I Could Not Stop for Death is a poem by the American poet Emily Dickinson, who is considered one of the finest poets in American literature. Like most of Dickinson's writings, this poem was not published during her lifetime. Dickinson most likely wrote it in 1863, during a highly productive phase in her writing career. The poem was first published in 1890, four years after Dickinson's death, under the title "The Chariot." It is now more correctly known by its first line, as are almost all of Dickinson's untitled lyrics.