Because I Could Not Stop for Death

518 Words2 Pages

How does one greet death at the end of one’s life? Emily Dickinson was born on 10th December, 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts (Pettinger). Although no one knows accurately when “Because I Could Not Stop for Death”, many scholars believe that her prime writing years were between 1858 and 1865 (“Emily Dickinson”). Within the confines of “Because I Could Not Stop for Death”, there is a very intriguing theme, which can be viewed as morbid or highly optimistic, then this poem contains many universal symbols that describes the cycles of life, and the personified Death, who’s a major element to the poem. Throughout, the theme of Dickinson’s “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” depicts a woman for whom Death stopped for in a carriage led by immortal horses headed towards eternity. The theme has partial gloomy stanzas, but might depict a somewhat bright conclusion where the woman is accepting her death as an arrangement and that she is escorted into a luminous eternity. A brighter section of the poem like, “For his civility,” states Death as a gentleman escort rather than the original image...

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