Emily Dickinson's Because I Could Not Stop For Death

1075 Words3 Pages

Emily Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for Death” is a lyric poem that is narrated by a person who encounters death; however, what’s more interesting is that the poem is surprisingly conveyed placidly. The speaker delivers her own perspective on the main idea—Death. Although each stanza reveals different details, these details, if connected, leads to the same main theme which is death. In the first stanza, Dickinson instantly informs the reader that the theme of the poem is death. Using the word “Because” to start the poem is a smart approach because it would sound as if the speaker is providing an explanation or an answer to a question. Dickinson capitalizes the word “Death” because her objective is to embody death as a gentleman, which …show more content…

This is a significant part because “We” may let the reader think that the speaker has some control on their pace. On the other hand, Dickinson’s quick shift to “He” tells the reader that he is in charge of their slow advance and the speaker is just riding with him. A calm tone of the poem makes the reader assume that the speaker doesn’t fear death, but due to their unhurried pace, little tension has developed in the poem. Moreover, in this stanza, Death’s generosity and politeness have made the speaker feel at ease and surrender all her worries as she is somewhat awed by his conduct. Judging from the speaker’s way of expressing her sentiment, she is beginning to feel more affable, social, and truly …show more content…

The fifth stanza, on the other hand, has answered all the intriguing points Dickinson has presented to the reader: “We paused before a House that seemed”(lines 17). Dickinson’s use of the word “House” as a replacement of the word grave or gravestone is a very shrewd technique to make the poem more interesting and challenging at the same time. Also, the next line: “A Swelling of the Ground—” (line 18), is the phrase that would make everything apparent and clear. Every dug area always leaves a little ascend in the ground, and every reader that realizes this would think that Dickinson is referring to a grave. Although the speaker realizes that it is her grave, she is surprisingly calm because she knows she cannot escape from

Emily Dickinson and Charles Wright
1684 Words | 4 Pages
Dickinson employs vivid impressions of death in this poem. In the first line, she employs the analogy between sleep and death; sleep is silent but death lives within silence. She uses the word “it” to help identify something other than human. She declares that “it….will not tell its name” as thought it refuses to speak and then resents the dead for its stillness and laziness. Then she acknowledges the attraction she has to death by doubting its “gravity”. In the third stanza, she expresses that she would not cry for the dead because not only is it offensive to the dead but it might panic the soul to return to dust. Christians believe that from the earth we are made and once we die, we return to the dust of the earth.
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Because I Could Not Stop for Death
619 Words | 2 Pages
Because I Could Not Stop for Death is proclaimed to be Emily Dickinson’s most famous poem. This poem reveals Emily Dickinson’s calm acceptance of death. She portrays death as a gentleman that surprises her with a visit. Emily illustrates everyday scenes in a life cycle. While her metaphors explore death in an immutable way, her lines often contain as much uncertainty as meaning.
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Emily Dickinson's Because I Could Not Stop For Death
727 Words | 2 Pages
She chooses this arrangement of verse in order to ordain a religious aspect into the poem, which does well to suite the theme and what she is fond of. As the recollection of the speaker’s death progresses, Dickinson uses the stanzas to mark the stages of the
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Death and Emily Dickinson
1312 Words | 3 Pages
One primary element of death is the experience of dying. Many of of us are scared of the thought of death. When we stop and think about what death will be like, we wonder what it will feel like, will it be painful, will it be scary? In Emily Dickinson's poem Because I Could Not Stop for Death, she focuses on what the journey into her afterlife will be like. Dickinson uses the first person narrative to tell her encounter with death. The form that she uses throughout the poem helps to convey her message. The poem is written in five quatrains. Each stanza written in a quatrain is written so that the poem is easy to read. The first two lines of the poem, “Because I could not stop for Death, He kindly stopped for me;” (Clugston 2010), gives you a clear view of what the poems central theme is. Unlike most poems that are about death, Dickinson's attitu...
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Analysis of Because I Could Not Stop for Death by Emily Dickinson
1993 Words | 4 Pages
" The third quatrain seems to speed up as the trinity of death, immortality, and the speaker pass the. children playing, the fields of grain, and the setting sun, one after another. The poem seems to get faster and faster as life goes through its course. In lines 17 and 18, however, the poem seems to slow down as Dickinson writes, "We paused before a House that seemed, "A Swelling of the Ground. " The reader is given a feeling of life slowly ending.
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Emily Dickinson's Obsession with Death
2687 Words | 6 Pages
Dickinson, Emily. "Because I could not stop for Death." Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. M.h. Abrams. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc, 1993. 726.
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Because I Could Not Stop For Death Emily Dickinson Analysis
1149 Words | 3 Pages
Then, she says, “we paused before a house that seemed a swelling of the ground” (lines17-18) as a metaphor for her grave. Her welcoming tone continues as she uses a house, which isknown to be a friendly environment, to describe the place she is buried once she dies.Throughout the poem, there is a definite rhythm scheme which helps keep the poemsoothing. Rhythm is very important because it dictates the direction; whether it is a positive ornegative direction. When there is a nice rhythm it keeps the flow in a nice harmony which showsthe poem is meant to have a positive attitude. The first and third line in every stanza are made upof eight syllables, four feet, and the whole poem uses the basic iambic meter. This furtherintensifies the poem by helping create a flow. The use of rhymes and slant rhymes also give thepoem a flow. "Me" rhymes with "immortality" and, farther down the poem, with "civility" and,finally, "eternity." There are also slant rhymes like "chill" and "tulle" which helps balance out therhythm. Dickinson also capitalized nouns, which intensified the structure to help the rhythm ofthe poem. Capitalization makes the words stand out more which emphasizes their importance.Those dashes have a
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Compare Hope Is The Thing With Feathers And Because I Could Not Stop For Death
1132 Words | 3 Pages
Dickinson doesn’t have the speaker complain about dying and be trying to avoid it instead she is calm and just riding along with death. She sort of goes on a date with him and is driving around taking their time to get wherever they need to go. When you get to the end you realize that she is already dead, and that’s why she wasn’t fighting it, because she was already there. The speaker had come to terms with what had happened and was reliving the moment when it happened. As one would expect, dealing with death, it was darker than her poem about hope. This poem was really able to capture emotion of death and portray it in an easy way to
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Compare Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night And Because I Could Not Wait For Death
1435 Words | 3 Pages
Dickinson 's poem uses poetic devices of personification to represent death, she represents death as if it were a living being. Dickinson 's capitalization of the word “DEATH”, causes us to see death as a name, in turn it becomes noun, a person, and a being, rather than what it truly is, which is the culminating even of human life. The most notable use of this, is seen in the very first few lines of the poem when Dickinson says “Because I could not stop for Death, He kindly stopped for me”. In her poem Dickinson makes death her companion, as it is the person who is accompanying her to her grave. She states that death kindly stopped for her and she even goes as far as to give death the human ability to stop and pick her up. The occasion of death through Dickinson use of personification makes it seem like an interaction between two living beings and as a result the poem takes on a thoughtful and light hearted tone. The humanization of death makes the experience more acceptable and less strange, death takes on a known, familiar, recognizable form which in turn makes the experience more relatable. As the poem
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Comparing and Contrasting Dickinson’s Poems, Because I Could Not Stop for Death and I Heard a Fly Buzz- When I Died
846 Words | 2 Pages
Although both poems were written by the same poet around the same time, their idea of what lies after death differs. In one of the poems, there appears to be an afterlife, while in the other poem, there is nothing. For example, in her work of, “Because I Could Not Stop for Death”, Dickinson tells the reader a tale of a woman being taken away by Death. The Death would either take the women to hell or heaven, giving us our first indication of an afterlife. Also in the fifth stanza, Death and the woman make a stop before a house where they see “… The Roof was scarcely visible – The Cornice in the Ground-“; the woman is lying in the soil beneath, where her Soul and Spirits are looking towards the house, representing an afterlife. As the poem proceeds to the sixth stanza, the reader is given a conclusive evidence of the afterlife when the woman revives how it has been centuries since the death has come to visit...
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Differing Experiences of Death in "I Heard a Fly Buzz-When I Died" and "Because I Could Not Stop for Death by Dickinson,
1861 Words | 4 Pages
In the beginning of the poem, Dickinson writes, "Because I could not stop for Death, He kindly stopped for me." Not only does Dickinson portray death as a man, but she does so in a way that the man is not perceived in a negative way. She writes as if the man is her lover, kindly stopping in a way as if he was to suit her. Death is not our enemy, but instead is our companion. In the next two lines, in lines three and four, Dickinson then uses a metaphor to compare a carriage to death.... ...
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Because I Could Not Stop For Death By Emily Dickinson
1200 Words | 3 Pages
In poetry, death is referred as the end of literature and it is associated with feeling of sorrows. However Emily Dickinson demonstrates that death is not the end of literature or feeling of sadness but death is a new element of inspiration in poetry and is the beginning of a new chapter in our life. In the poem ‘’Because I Could Not Stop for Death’, she discusses the encounter of a women with death, who passed away centuries ago. Dickenson uses metaphors and similes to show that the process of dying can be an enjoyable moment by appreciating the good moments in life, and by respecting death rather than fearing it. Also Dickinson portrays death in a humorous way as she compares it to man seducing her to go to her death as well, to childhood games that show the innocence of this encounter (Bloom). The poem is a reflection of how unpredictable death can be. Death is a scary process in life that should not be feared because it should be celebrate as new start.
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Emily Dickinson's Because I Could Not Stop For Death
1123 Words | 3 Pages
Dickinson begins with an optimistic, appreciative tone, creating a tranquil atmosphere with "no haste". Dickinson’s calm and relaxed tone then becomes reminiscent through her use of anaphora as "we passed" different stages of life. A drastic change in tone is observed in Stanzas 4 and 5 which express uncertainty and fear as the speaker reaches her grave that has a "scarcely" visible Roof. Nonetheless, a tone of acceptance and peace is revealed in the final stanza as the serene atmosphere of eternal life is depicted. Auden’s Funeral Blues starts off with a strong imperative voice in a direct, forceful tone to portray the struggle of coping with grief.
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Literary Analysis of Emily Dickinson's Poetry
1056 Words | 3 Pages
Imagery is a big component to most works of poetry. Authors strive to achieve a certain image for the reader to paint in their mind. Dickinson tries to paint a picture of ?death? in her own words. Thomas A. Johnson, an interpretive author of Dickinson's work, says that ?In 1863 Death came into full statue as a person. ?Because I could not stop for Death? is a superlative achievement wherein Death becomes one of the greatest characters of literature? (Johnson). Dickinson's picture to the audience is created by making ?Death? an actual character in the poem. By her constantly calling death either ?his? or ?he,? she denotes a specific person and gender. Dickinson also compares ?Death? to having the same human qualities as the other character in the poem. She has ?Death? physically arriving and taking the other character in the carriage with him. In the poem, Dickinson shows the reader her interpretation of what this person is going through as they are dying and being taken away by ?Death?. Dickinson gives images such as ?The Dews drew quivering and chill --? and ?A Swelling of the Ground --? (14, 18). In both of these lines, Dickinson has the reader conjure up subtle images of death. The ?quivering an chill? brings to the reader's mind of death being ...
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What Is The Tone In Emily Dickinson's Poetry
1073 Words | 3 Pages
The poem starts out by ironically personalizing Death as a friendly and more welcoming commodity rather than Death being a vicious and violent entity that takes away the liveliness of people. The lines, “The Carriage held but just Ourselves-” and “And Immortality.” portray how Death becomes a friendly article that stops for one and rides with them on a royal Carriage to immortality. The carriage embodies a comfortable ride to Death from life that creates a sense of pleasure. Later on in the third stanza, Dickinson’s anaphoric “We passed the,” creates a reflective tone of a speaker who experiences the melancholy of literally leaving their
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Emily Dickinson's Because I Could Not Stop For Death

Emily Dickinson and Charles Wright

Because I Could Not Stop for Death