Because I Could Not Stop For Death By Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickson’s “Because I could not stop for death” was published in 1890.Emily Dickinson was a recluse and it was not until after her death on May 15, 1886 was her works published. A major theme of said poem was the death of the speaker and what happened when she died. She explores a different side of death than what is typically imagined. Emily Dickinson uses the poetic elements of figures of speech, imagery, and symbolism to illustrate the theme of death in the poem Because I could not stop for death.
Emily Dickinson uses figures of speech to include the theme of death into Because I could not stop for death. The poet uses personification as a means to give several concepts a physical form. In this poem instead of being a grim reaper with a cowl and a scythe Death is a gentlemen giving the speaker a carriage ride to her new home. Michael Staub reinstates this idea here, “In her poem J712 Death appears unexpectedly.
A major example of symbolism was the journey they took during the poem. The school can be seen as a representation of the early stages of life and to further this the children possibly represent her childhood. The field of grazing grain they pass represents middle stage of her life or her working years. The setting sun represents the later stages of her life and when it finally went down it could represent her death Paula Hendrickson here argues that, “The speaker has moved into the realm of the impossible or the metaphysical. There is a stanza break and the line or rather—He passed Us. The two lines and the space between them create a turning point in the poem. Technically, the poet has approximated the moment of physical death” (61).Lastly the carriage going at a slow pace can represent her dying a slow death such as old age or from a disease and the carriage itself can represent her passage to death like a hearse carrying a coffin to a grave