A Clock stopped—

It is natural when someone dies to wish for their resurrection, even while knowing that this is an impossibility. In “A Clock Stopped—” the speaker zeroes in on a breaking clock as a metaphor for this idea. In the poem, the slow stopping of the mechanism symbolizes a person dying. The clock “quiver[s] out of Decimals” (Line 8) and land[s] on the marker of 12 o’clock, or “Degreeless noon” (Line 9). The death, the speaker indicates through this symbolism, is permanent. While other clocks might be mended, this one cannot be.

The speaker in “A Clock Stopped—” leaves life-and-death decisions up to God, or another vast “Him” (Line 18). They are not a believer in human miracles. Their acceptance of the divine decision for the life of the clock to be done is contrasted with others in the poem who second guess the will of God and/or the permanence of death. This suggests the idea of man’s hubris in attempting to resurrect the body by either persuasive words or science. That resurrection—or fixing the mechanism of the clock—is paramount to the Geneva watchmaker, of “farthest skill” (Line 3), the “Doctor” (Line 10), and the “Shopman” (Line 12), who all try their hand at making the clock right.