“Because I Could Not Stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson is a lyrical poem that contains six stanzas with each having four lines. This poem is about an individual that did not wait for Death, thus Death waited for her. Death, with Immortality as a chaperone, picks up the speaker and leads her through a journey of life. They slowly drive by schools, fields, and the setting sun, reminiscing the activities and trials of life. At the end, they stop at a grave. Here, the speaker realizes that centuries have passed since her death, yet it “Feels shorter than [a] Day” (Dickinson 21-22). Through various literary devices, such as tone, personification, imagery, and metaphor, the author depicts the uncertainty, the inevitability, and ultimately the acceptance with death. Dickinson’s “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” tells a story of Death taking a woman on a journey through life, evoking a pleasant tone. In the beginning, the speaker is hesitant to follow Death, but after seeing Death’s kindness she decides to get in the carriage. She is even delighted saying she “put away/ [her] labor and [her] leisure” for Death (Dickinson 6-7). The speaker is so pleased to go with Death that she even forgets to put on appropriate clothes for the weather, for she was only wearing “… [a] Gossamer, … gown/ … Tippet – … [and] Tulle” on the rainy day (Dickinson 15-16). As the poem closes, there is a slight change in the tone. The speaker admits that when she boarded the carriage, she did not realize
Emily Dickinson is one of the most important American poets of the 1800s. Dickinson, who was known to be quite the recluse, lived and died in the town of Amherst, Massachusetts, spending the majority of her days alone in her room writing poetry. What few friends she did have would testify that Dickinson was a rather introverted and melancholy person, which shows in a number of her poems where regular themes include death and mortality. One such poem that exemplifies her “dark side” is, “Because I Could Not Stop for Death”. In this piece, Dickinson tells the story of a soul’s transition into the afterlife showing that time and death have outright power over our lives and can make what was once significant become meaningless.
Death is inevitable; it should not be feared but instead accepted, and this is the main idea and theme explored in Emily Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for Death.” In the poem, Death is personified as a gentleman who “kindly stopped [stops] for me [her]” (Dickinson 2), “slowly drove [drives] … know[ing] no haste” (Dickinson 5), and with whom she stops at a “house that seemed [seems]/ A swelling of the ground” (Dickinson 17-18) or in other words, her grave. To begin the poem, the fact that Death is represented as “if he were a human being” (Evans 15) implies that it is humane. This contributes to the idea that death is not to fear. Later on, it can be concluded that this person has control over her as she describes how she “had put away / My [her] labor, and my [her] leisure too, / for his civility” (Dickinson 6-8), which implies that “everything that had once seemed so important and distracting now recedes in importance” (Evans 17), and how he “slowly drove [drives] … know[ing] no haste” (Dickinson 5), which gives “no clear sense of the underlying purpose of the journey or its ultimate destination” (Evans 16) and thus implies that only Death knows the path and destination of the journey. Both of these examples contribute to the fact that Death completely controls a person against its will and that it is inevitable. Finally when “we [they] paused before a house that seemed / A swelling of the ground” (Dickinson
In “Because I could not stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson, Dickinson personifies something I never thought could be personified: death. In the poem, death is a “he” who is on a carriage ride with the narrator to the narrator's death. In lines one and two, Dickinson writes, “Because I could not stop for Death-- He kindly waited for me.” This is personification because death cannot literally stop to wait for someone. Here, death is not associated with its usual connotations such as fear, but with peace and kindness, which is ironic. In line three, the poem reads, “The Carriage held but just Ourselves-- And Immortality.” In this line, immortality is also included in the carriage ride, contrasting death. This is personification because immortality
In Emily Dickinson’s poem, in line 1, 2 "Because I couldn’t stop for death –He kindly stopped for me" the word “death” delivers a positive mood as the speaker seems respect and awe death. Moreover, death is portrayed as a phenomenon that is beyond human’s control. Death has its own control; it is something that human cannot decide themselves but only death can do stop for human, invite them into its carriage, not vice versa. In addition, the word “kindly” in the line presents calmness to the readers as death is not something that human should scare off. Besides, the word "slowly" and the phrase "no haste" in
Because I could not stop for Death by Emily Dickinson processes the life leading up to death and eternal life. The speaker is telling the poem many years after death and in eternal life. She explains the journey to immortality, while also facing the problem of sacrifice and willingness to earn it. The poem is succulent in alliteration, imagery, repetition, personification and rhyme. A notable shift in almost all of the poems direction occurs as well. By doing so, Dickinson, a poet in the American Romantics era, sets forward an idea that immortality will appear in the afterlife of an individual who believes so.
Emily Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for Death” is a remarkable masterpiece that exercises thought between the known and the unknown. Critics call Emily Dickinson’s poem a masterpiece with strange “haunting power.”
Death is an aspect of life that everyone becomes acquainted with sooner or later. The poem, “Because I Could Not Stop for Death,” by Emily Dickinson, is seen as a reflection of the passing of time in one 's life while living. No one knows when it is their time to die, and we live everyday as if tomorrow it promised. Dickinson is saying that since we as humans tend to live on the expectation for tomorrow, we don 't think about the end of our life or when it will be. That time will stand still when, and only when, life draws to a close, yet it will no longer matter.
When the speaker states, “Because I could not stop for Death—/He kindly stopped for me—,” she implies that most people do not stop to think about their death. People go on with their busy lives and do not talk or think about death because they are afraid of it. So Death must stop and “kindly” ask people into his carriage. After she went into his carriage, Dickinson goes on to portray what the speaker sees as she is dying. Contrary to the speaker’s busy and fast life, line five
“Because I Could Not Stop For Death” by Emily Dickinson was first published in 1862 and “Ballad of Birmingham” by an African America writer named Dudley Randall based on the true story and was first published in 1965 are both use the theme, which is quite close to the reader is the death. Moreover, they are using the sad tone to insist on the pain and the sadness that they want whoever reads this poem will feel the same way they did. Both these poems use literary elements such as symbolism, imagery, personification, metaphor, and irony as the main term to express their feeling to the reader. In the poem “Because I Could Not Stop For Death” by Emily Dickinson, she uses an afterlife as the main theme of the poem and the tone is full of sadness
Dickinson’s use of figurative language in “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” contributes to the meaning of the poem. With the use of personification, symbolism, and examples of vivid imagery, she composes a poem which is both unique and captivating. The title and first line of the poem, “Because I Could
The subject of death, including her own was a very prevalent theme in Emily Dickinson’s poems and letters. Some may find her preoccupation with death morbid, but this was not unusual for her time period. The mindset during Ms. Dickinson’s time was that of being prepared to die, in the 19th century people died of illness and accidents at an alarming rate, not to mention the Civil War had a high number of casualties, she also lived 15 years of her youth next to a cemetery. Dickinson’s view on death was never one of something to be feared she almost romanized death, in her poem “Because I Could not Stop for Death”, she actually personifies death while narrating from beyond the grave. In the first stanza she states “I could not stop for
In the poem “Because I could not stop for Death”, by Emily Dickinson she talks about a dark subject which is death. Emily created six stanzas in this poem. The first stanza talks about death visiting her in a carriage that is reserved for only her and death. The second talks about her and death is driving slow, death makes it known that there is no need to rush so Emily goes at death’s pace. In the third one they past a school where children are at recess in a ring, she starts to talk about the places they pass along the way.
Emily Dickinson’s poems are shorter than most, but that does not mean that they lack depth or skill. Dickinson uses many brilliant literary techniques in her poetry such as allusions, personification, juxtaposition, metaphors and so many others. Her unique use of symbolism throughout her poems really makes the reader think twice on what they are reading. And since the majority of her poems are short, it makes it easier to reread the poem numerous times. In Emily Dickinson’s Poem, “Because I Could Not Stop For Death”, Dickinson uses a personified version of death to lead the speaker of the poem through a journey to the end of her life, that involves the contrasting concepts of time and eternity.
Emily Dickinson uses a variety of poetic techniques such as anaphora, metaphor and symbolism in her poem, Because I Could Not Stop For Death, to pursue the idea of death. In the poem, Dickinson presents the idea of death in the form of a gentleman suitor who picks her up and takes her on a ride in a horse carriage. At first, the ride is peaceful, riding passed children playing, fields of amazing grain, and passing a setting sun. As dusk approaches, the poem begins to reach an ere level. With the help of poetic techniques, Dickinson successfully pursues the idea of death.
In the poem "Because I could not stop for death", Emily Dickinson talks about her acceptance of death as something inevitable that comes to her and she has no control over it; although she seems confused about being alive or dead as she keeps narrating. The speaker is comfortable with Death, she is not afraid nor does she beg for more time as they pass through the town where she has lived her life. Along the way she sees children playing, fields of grain and the setting sun. It is a peaceful ride. The speaker describes Death as civil as he travels with her towards eternity. Although the speaker in the poem could not stop for death on her own and the poem is about the speaker’s own death, she is not fearful or hesitant to follow Death to her resting place and then on to eternity. In her poem, “Because I could not stop for Death” Emily Dickinson uses personification, imagery, and symbolism to tell of a woman’s peaceful journey from life to death and then to eternity.