The poem "Because I Could Not Stop for Death" by Emily Dickinson expresses the speaker's reflection on death. The poem focuses on the concept of life after death. This poem's setting mirrors the circumstances by which death approaches, and death appears kind and compassionate. It is through the promise of immortality that fear is removed, and death not only becomes acceptable, but welcomed as well. As human beings, we feel that death never comes at a convenient or opportune time. When Dickinson says, "Because I could not stop for Death," she causes the reader to ask why she could not stop. The obvious answer is that she was so wrapped up in her own life that she did not think about death. She makes it clear that it is inescapable, though, when she says, "He kindly stopped for me." The next lines, "The Carriage held but just Ourselves-/And Immortality," signify that the miracle of life is our most precious possession and promises the gift of unending life. Immortality's presence helps to remove fears as we exit the physical world and provides the recipient with the necessary assistance to assure that the transition from reality to spirituality is a pleasant experience. If the promise of immortality did not exist, one would never go along willingly, nor would one welcome death without fear. Death and the speaker ride along with absolutely no concept of the passage of time. They are not hurried, as they have forever to reach their destination. This is stated in the line "We slowly drove-/He knew no haste." Having completed all her earthly chores, the speaker states that they are no longer of any concern to her. Now there is no sewing, cooking, cleaning, farming, or caring for loved ones. The speaker has been allowed the luxury of rest and relaxation, as the next lines reveal: "And I had put away-/My labor had my leisure too." Therefore, the person and death share a reminiscent journey together as they stroll down…
Death is an odd thing, humans do not know what waits for them the moment their hearts stop beating, they do not know where they’ll end up going- but death is a common topic. Whether it be in movies or writing, death has made its impression on the world; especially on poet Emily Dickinson. Dickinson’s poems, “I heard a Fly buzz- when I died” and “Because I could not stop for Death” focus on a consistent theme of death and her own curiosity on what it might be like to die herself. Dickinson’s life and use of the archetypal device have a connection to helping fuel her dreary, death revolving, poetry.…
Emily Dickinson, as a poetic writer, composed most of her works with the theme of death, the entirety of which can be categorised into three different periods of writings; the earliest mainly contained the themes of death and immortality, personifying death and elegiac poems and lacked the intensity and urgency of her later poems or their fascination with the physical aspects of death (VAN DAESDONK 2007). Because of Dickinson’s immense fascination with this subject it is interesting to compare her pieces against each other to see how her view of death changed over the years of her writing.…
Emily Dickinson is regarded as one of the greatest American female poets. Although Emily Dickinson wrote about death in many of her works, she often times wrote about it in peculiar ways such as death as being eternal and continuous but also immortality as a state of consciousness can be seen in her poem, "Because I could not stop for Death-“.…
The poem “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson is an extended metaphor on death, comparing it to a journey with a polite gentleman in a carriage taking the speaker on a ride to eternity. Through unusual symbolism, personification and ironic metaphors Dickinson subjugates that death is an elusive yet subtle being. Dickinson portrays death as an optimistic endeavor while most people have a gruesome perspective of death. This poem’s setting mirrors the circumstances by which death approaches, and death seems kind and compassionate.…
Emily Dickinson's "Because I could not stop for death" and " I heard a fly buzz when I died", are remarkable masterpieces that exercises thought between the known and the unknown. Critics call Emily Dickinson"s poems masterpieces with strange " haunting powers". In Dickinson's poems " Because I could not stop for death" and " I heard a fly buzz when I died" are created less than a year apart by the same poet. Both poems talk about death and the impression in the tone and symbols that exudes creativity. One might undoubtedly agree to eerie, haunting, if not frightening, tone in Dickinson's poem. Dickinson uses controlling adjectives-"slowly: and "passed"-to create a tone that seems rather placid. For example, "We slowly drove- He knew no haste/ ...We passed the school.../ We passed the setting sun," sets a slow quiet, calm, and dreamy atmosphere (5, 9, 11, 12). "One thing that impresses us," one author wrote, " is the remarkable placidity, or composure, of its tone" (Greenberg 128). The tone in Dickinson"s poems will put its readers ideas on a unifying track heading towards a buggling atmosphere. Dickinson's masterpieces lives on complex ideas that are evoked through symbols, which carry her readers through her poems. Besides the literal significance of the "school," Gazing Grain," "Setting Sun," and the "Ring" much is gathered to complete the poem's central idea. Emily brought to light the mysteriousness of the life's'cycle. Ungraspable to many, the cycle of one's'life, as symbolized by Dickinson, has three stages and then a final stage of eternity. These three stages are recognized by Mary N. Shawn as follows: "School, where children strove" (9). Because it deals with an important symbol, the "Ring" this first scene is perhaps the most important . One author noted that "the children, at recess, do not play as one would expect them to but strive" (Monteiro 20). In addition, at recess the children performed a venerable ritual, perhaps known to all, in a ring. This…
In "Because I Could Not Stop For Death" Emily Dickinson explores the tension between life and death. The poem highlights the conflict between life's desire for permanence and the irrepressible and untimely nature of death. While Dickinson's poem presents eternity as the soul's ultimate spoils in this struggle, the tone of the poem suggests that in itself the promise of eternity can provide no comfort to the living. The poem's use of personification, together with a marked shift in tone and rhythm, provide an especially chilling presentation of man's powerlessness in the face of death's random schedule.…
Emily Dickinson's 'Because I Could Not Stop For Death' is a poem where death is presented as a chivalrous suitor who takes us on a relaxing journey to a peaceful end. Dickinson personifies death as the benevolent lover she never acquired during her reclusive life, and as a result, presents readers with an uncommon perspective of death from a prolific persona.…
Emily Dickinson's poetry can be seen as a study of deep fears and emotions, specifically in her exploration of death. In her famous poem #465 Dickinson explores the possibility of a life without the elaborate, finished ending that her religious upbringing promised her. She forces herself to question whether there is a possibility of death being a mundane nothingness. In this last moment of doubt in the appearance of the divine, the speaker in the poem find an independent and personal acceptance of a death without profundity or salvation.…
“Because I could not stop for Death- He kindly stopped for me-…” (Dickinson 1-2). Emily Dickinson was born in 1830 in Amherst, MA, and lived a fairly normal childhood. She attended an all-female college in her birth town, but her life changed after her cousin passed away. After that tragic event she developed, a rare mental condition that made her stay inside, and not go outside at all. It eventually got so bad that she would not even leave her bedroom. Dickinson wrote letters to all of her friends and family since she did not exit her room. She had a unique obsession with death, and this can be shown in her poems, specifically the poem “Because I Could Not Stop For Death”. This poem used many unique ways of writing such as her capitalization and punctuation in her poems, her use of slant rhymes, and also her use of personification on different, seemingly unimportant words to convey her obsession with death in her poem “Because I Could Not Stop For Death.”…
Describing how death showed her many different things opened the poem to reader, leaving readers with their wide open, wondering what’s next. Ms. Dickinson is telling her journey…
According to popular belief, Emily Dickinson is known mostly for being a recluse in the nineteenth century who wrote poems obsessing over death. And while Dickinson did indeed have a fascination with death, it was not in the way as popular belief depicts. Being a woman of the nineteenth century, death was an almost daily part of Dickinson’s life, especially considering the fact that her bedroom overlooked a cemetery, but through her poetry, she had found a way to write about death in a variety of ways. In this particular poem, she writes with a calm and peaceful tone, using personification as a main tool throughout. Instead of using the typical depiction of death being depicted as a dark, threatening grim reaper-like creature, Dickinson personifies…
Dickinson's puritanical context juxtaposed with her fascination of nature and the rawness of life explains her conflict and tension that is expressed around her concept of death throughout this poem.…
Born on December 10, 1930, in Amherst, Massachusetts, Emily Dickinson is a reclusive poet whose poetry was found by her sister Lavinia Dickinson according to Biography.com. Dickinson began writing poetry as a teenager some of her best works include “Because I could not stop for death” and “If you were coming in the fall.” In 1886 Dickinson died at the age of 55 due to kidney disease. Additionally, Dickinson’s life impacts major themes in her poetry including death, love, and separation. “Because I could Not Stop Death” was written in 1863, it is one of Dickinson’s most famous works and is also “considered to be one of the greatest masterpieces of American poetry” as reported by encyclopedi dot com.…
Emily Dickinson is famous for writing poems about death. It seems ironic that she became famous after her death. It is important to understand why death was a central topic, this is what inspired her poetry. During the romantic period, there was a lack of advanced medicine. Whatever the case, she saw death as being inevitable in life.…