Because I Could Not Stop For Death Figurative Language

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 the article “Death and Dying in Literature,” John Skelton stated, “One of the central tasks of literature is to impose a structure on life and death, giving meaning to both” (n.p.). Many literary works, including poems, focus on death in one way or another. This is true for “Dover Beach” by Matthew Arnold and “Because I could not stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson. “Dover Beach” and “Because I could not stop for Death” provide varying perspectives on the topic of death. In “Dover Beach,” Arnold attempts to portray how death, sadness, and suffering have resulted due to the world’s loss of faith (Shmoop Editorial Team). In “Because I could not stop for Death,” Dickinson views death as an event that everyone must face (Shmoop Editorial Team). Throughout their respective poems, Arnold and Dickinson use elements such as rhythm, symbols, and tone and style. These elements all work together to establish each poem’s perspective on death.

The narrator of this poem explains her regrets and her desire to change her fate. Dickinson starts the poem by stating the inevitability of death, with this theme even being expressed within the title of the poem itself: “Because I could not stop for Death” (Dickinson). Emily Dickinson personifies death by describing him as a well-dressed, polite man who is said to be riding in a chariot. Death is so charming he causes the speaker to forget about everything else. The reason for this personification is to show the reader that death surprises and kindly takes you away from the world.

In Because I Could Not Stop For Death, Emily Dickinson presents her profound view of life after death and compares it to the human understanding of death. There is a distinction between what is considered death and Dickinson's view of death. Death is often seen as something unwanted, unwelcomed, but for Dickinson, death comes as a friend, “he kindly stopped for me.”(408, lines 2) Dickinson views death as understanding and kind, for she would have not stopped for death, in the way that death stopped for her. There is a definite new view of the meaning of death in Dickinson's poem, which takes the idea of accepting death to a profound extent. Through this human understanding is expanded and the readers are caused to

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.”

Two of Emily Dickinson’s poems, “I heard a Fly buzz-when I died” and “Because I could not stop for Death” are both written about life’s stopping point, death. Although the poems are written by the same poet, both poems view death in a different manner. Between the two poems, one views death as having an everlasting life while the other anticipates everlasting life, only to realize it does not exist. While both poems are about death, both poems also illustrate that the outcome of death is a mysterious experience that can only be speculated upon with the anticipation of everlasting life.

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.

In Emily Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for Death “ (448), the speaker of the poem is a woman who relates about a situation after her death. The speaker personifies death as a polite and considerate gentleman who takes her in a carriage for a romantic journey; however, at the end of this poem, she finishes her expedition realizing that she has died many years ago.

     Emily Dickinson is one of the most famous authors in American History, and a good amount of that can be attributed to her uniqueness in writing. In Emily Dickinson's poem 'Because I could not stop for Death,' she characterizes her overarching theme of Death differently than it is usually described through the poetic devices of irony, imagery, symbolism, and word choice.

The poem "Because I could not stop for Death” by Emily Dickson dramatizes the conflict between life and death. The speaker is a women that is not as frightened by death as one would assume; she was rather more accepting. The first two lines "because I could not stop for Death/ he kindly stopped for me” demonstrates how Dickson utilized personification referring to death as a man. She also used capital letter for “death” which bring the reader’s attention to the word and show its importance. In this poem death is revealed as a gentleman who comes to give the speaker a ride to eternity. Throughout this poem, she develops the unusual classification of death in an odd way. She wrote a poem full of imagery and that is both distinctive and assumed

Regardless of race, caste, religion, or age, every human has wondered about the one fact of life that unifies us all: What is death? Both poems, “Death of a Young Son by Drowning” by Margaret Atwood and “Because I could Not Stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson share a common subject of death. Using figurative language, both poems illustrate distinct takes on a similar topic.

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

Dickinson gives Death many characteristics that help to shape our image of him. The line "He kindly stopped for me" in the first stanza, immediately gives a male gender (2). This male image gives the reader the traditional idea of the gentleman caller. This line also reveals a kind quality of death. The kind quality is important throughout this poem because it allows the speaker to