Analysis Of Because I Could Not Stop For Death

Two main contradicting points that Emily Dickinson mainly focuses on in her poem Because I could not stop for Death, are Life and Death. In this poem, Death is portrayed not as something dark or terrifying, but as a peaceful person, coming to take the readers on a road to eternity. Dickinson created this poem in which it can be interpreted in many ways, with her unique style of writing. Through Dickinson’s precise and though provoking writing style, she portrays that life cannot avoid death, and death will always be there to take the readers on a road to eternity, perhaps offering them a new beginning.
Because I could not stop for Death’s structure is very consistent, each stanza giving the readers a different representation. ‘Death’ had ‘kindly
But as the poem’s structure and the implications alter, the passing of ‘the School’ illustrates ‘Death’ will come in the near future. The passing of ‘the School’, ‘Fields of Gazing Grain’, represent the different phases of life, as ‘Death’ approaches. Although the poem’s structure is quite linear, the speaker’s attitude towards ‘Death’ alters. In the first and second stanza, she speaker is too busy to even stop for ‘Death’, ultimately letting ‘Death’ take her away. They are in no rush, as the speaker lets go of everything, such as her’ labor and leisure’. The mood in the third and the fourth stanza starts to amend, as the speaker has sentimental flashbacks of her past, as she (speaker) and ‘Death’ pass the ‘School’, and the ‘Fields of the Gazing Grain’. Ultimately, the speaker could have had given up on her ‘labor and leisure’ and started putting other things in mind to worry about, such as death. Finally when they pass the ‘Setting Sun’, it gives the readers an image that it signifies a final stage of her life. Instead of not wanting to die, Dickinson has made the poem so that the speaker goes through every stage of what has happened in her life, thus making the poem’s flow more of a calm