Death will catch up to everyone at one point in their lives but, the real question is, is there something after we close our eyes forever or are we left in total darkness? In the poems, "Because I Could Not Stop For Death" and "I heard a Fly buzz - when I died" by Emily Dickinson, death is discussed in two different contexts. These two poems show how there are two views on death, one being there is a life after death and the other that there 's nothing more than darkness after death. Though, "Because I Could Not Stop For Death," explains the journey of death and how there 's an afterlife and "I heard a Fly buzz - when I died," explaining how there is nothing more after death, both poems employ that death will always catch up to somebody.
In the poem, "Because I Could not Stop for Death," Dickinson describes her journey of death and how it 's like new beginnings.
In addition, in the third stanza, it shows a sense of separation between life and death as she starts to get flashbacks of her life and memories. Dickinson uses personification to make the poem more intriguing in lines 12-13, "We passed the Setting Sun, or rather- He passed us." This explains how now the time has stopped for her and instead the sun is moving around and she 's not. In the last stanza, the speaker is dead and time has stopped for her. It shows how no matter the direction you take you 'll end up dead because death always catches up to you and you 'll go through a journey of reminiscing what you
Death is a controversial and sensitive subject. When discussing death, several questions come to mind about what happens in our afterlife, such as: where do you go and what do you see? Emily Dickinson is a poet who explores her curiosity of death and the afterlife through her creative writing ability. She displays different views on death by writing two contrasting poems: one of a softer side and another of a more ridged and scary side. When looking at dissimilar observations of death it can be seen how private and special it is; it is also understood that death is inevitable so coping with it can be taken in different ways. Emily Dickinson’s poems “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” and “I Heard A Fly Buzz When I Died” show both parallel and opposing views on death.
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.
Emily Dickinson is well-known as a poet who lived a secluded and sheltered life. Many of her poems focus on subjects of death and dying. In “Because I could not stop for death”, Emily Dickinson expresses her very personal thoughts on death and what follows. She presents these thoughts in the form of a poem in which she shares her feelings and philosophies as someone who experienced life as a sheltered recluse. This paper will review Emily Dickinson’s poem, and will evaluate her use of familiar sensory stimuli to describe the three stages of life as well as her use of personifications, metaphoric devices, and tone to illuminate death in a pleasant light and contradict its connotation as the end.
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
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...
Emily Dickinson became legendary for her preoccupation with death. All her poems contain stanzas focusing on loss or loneliness, but the most striking ones talk particularly about death, specifically her own death and her own afterlife. Her fascination with the morose gives her poems a rare quality, and gives us insight into a mind we know very little about. What we do know is that Dickinson’s father left her a small amount of money when she was young. This allowed her to spend her time writing and lamenting, instead of seeking out a husband or a profession. Eventually, she limited her outside activities to going to church. In her early twenties, she began prayed and worshipped on her own. This final step to total seclusion clearly fueled her obsession with death, and with investigating the idea of an afterlife. In “Because I could not stop for Death”, Dickinson rides in a carriage with the personification of Death, showing the constant presence of death in her life. Because it has become so familiar, death is no longer a frightening presence, but a comforting companion. Despite this, Dickinson is still not above fear, showing that nothing is static and even the most resolute person is truly sure of anything. This point is further proven in “I heard a Fly buzz”, where a fly disrupts the last moment of Dickinson’s life. The fly is a symbol of death, and of uncertainty, because though it represents something certain—her impending death—it flies around unsure with a “stumbling buzz”. This again illustrates the changing nature of life, and even death. “This World is not Conclusion” is Dickinson’s swan song on the subject of afterlife. She confirms all her previous statements, but in a more r...
Dickinson sets the slow pace and intimate feel of her poem almost immediately encouraging closeness between death, the narrator and the reader. In the first stanza, Dickinson gave death a human embodiment as carriage driver and a gentle quality to his character. Together the narrator and death begin a journey alone within the carriage. The second stanza is where Dickinson begins to cultivate the slow feel of this poem by stating, “We slowly drove—He knew no haste” (Dickinson line 5) and when coupled with the following lines “And I had put away/My labor and my leisure too” (Dickinson lines 6-7) the poem begins to take on its true meaning, this poem is the description of the narrators funeral procession.
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
In the opening stanza, in lines one and two the speaker is saying that she was unable to stop for death and so he had to stop for her. In line 2, the speaker says “he kindly stopped for me,” by using the word “kindly” it shows that death is not cruel nor is he frightening, but rather a guide leading her ...
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
In the poem "Because I could not stop for death", Emily Dickinson talks about her acceptance of death as something inevitable that comes to her and she has no control over it; although she seems confused about being alive or dead as she keeps narrating.
With her use of imagery, Emily Dickinson is able to govern how the reader feels and reflects about death. In her poem, "Because I could not stop for Death," the word "could" signifies that death has occurred as a past experience. Due to this poem being based on a past event, Dickinson is able to use imagery to relate death to a fresh memory of hers. 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 to be our enemy, but instead is our companion. In the next two lines, in lines three ...
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.
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 ...
Throughout Emily Dickinson’s poetry there is a reoccurring theme of death and immortality. The theme of death is further separated into two major categories including the curiosity Dickinson held of the process of dying and the feelings accompanied with it and the reaction to the death of a loved one. Two of Dickinson’s many poems that contain a theme of death include: “Because I Could Not Stop For Death,” and “After great pain, a formal feeling comes.”