Poetry Explication Essay The poem “Because I could not stop for Death-“ by Emily Dickinson is a work that displays a multitude of her literary devices and shows her ability to write marvelous poems. Emily Dickinson was born and lived her whole life in Amherst, Massachusetts with her mother, father, brother, and sister. Dickinson lived a reclusive lifestyle; therefore, found her inspiration from the small things around her and her imagination. Although Dickinson was a brilliant poet, it was not until after her death that her sister discovered her poetry and Dickinson became famous. Dickinson soon became known as one of the greatest influences on modern American poetry. This brilliance is shown through the poem “Because I could not stop for …show more content…
In her poem “I could not stop for Death-“ she uses many dashes. “Or rather – He passed us – / The Dews drew quivering and chill – / For only Gossamer, my Gown – / My Tippet – only Tulle –" (Dickinson, 13-16). These dashes allowed for the poem to flow and connect. She was able to make the poem flow in the manner that she wanted through the use of dashes. Dickinson also used personification throughout the entire poem. Dickinson gives death human traits and carries these traits through the poem. Another common Dickinson trait is unusual capitalization. Emily Dickinson capitalizes words that she wishes to draw emphasis to. This capitalization allows for readers to focus on the important aspects of the poetry. As we look at the length of the poem we can recognize Dickinson’s use of short lines and stanzas. Although she has short poems she uses compression to fit a lot of meaning into a small amount of words. The final trait can be noticed in the fact that her poem is titled after the first line of the poem. Dickinson did not name her poems in her lifetime and they are now named based on the first line of the poem. As displayed in this paragraph we see that Dickinson has many literary devices that benefit her. She is able to bring more meaning to such a simple poem through the use of dashes, capitalization, personification, and …show more content…
As they travel through town Dickinson describes the sites death and her pass on their journey. “We passed the School, where Children strove / At Recess – in the Ring – / We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain – / We passed the Setting Sun – “(Dickinson, 9-12). All of these different areas that they pass represent a time in our lives. The school represents our childhood, the grazing grain symbolizes adulthood, and the setting sun is meant to mean old age and life ending. This passage through time is an example of the fact that we all experience the same general journey through life. By displaying this to the reader, Dickinson is trying to insinuate that death is a natural part of life that we shall all experience at one point. The next major example is when Dickinson talks about a house that appeared to jest be the ground swelling. She states that this house had a nearly invisible roof and the structure was in the ground. As she describes this house we are able to understand that she means a grave. Graves are often referred to as the final resting place for all. As Dickinson talks about this ‘house’ that swells up from the ground we are once again reminded that death is inevitable for us all. These uses of metaphors and symbolisms help the author further emphasize their meaning on a certain subject. Dickinson was able to better convey the
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.
The poem does not have a perfect rhyme; however, it still has some rhythms making the poem connected. For instance, “Immortality” (line 4) with “Civility” (line 8), “finally” and “Eternity”; they all make the poem has beautiful rhythms and poetic musicality. Dickinson also uses many art techniques; for instance, personification and metaphors, to make the poem more appealing. Dickinson personified “Death” as a gentleman in the poem, which it the most important personification in the poem. Dashes are another literary trope commonly used by Dickinson, in this poem she also uses many dashes. Dashes can make readers’ reader speed slow down. Hence, readers can have more time to consider the meaning of the poem. Besides that, the tempo of the poem also influenced by the use of capital letters for common nouns. The speaker of the poem is a woman who has an unusual trip with death and immortality, at the end of the trip, the woman realizes that death is not the end of the
In Emily Dickinson’s “Because I Could Not Stop for Death,” she uses the structure of her poem and rhetoric as concrete representation of her abstract beliefs about death to comfort and encourage readers into accepting Death when He comes. The underlying theme that can be extracted from this poem is that death is just a new beginning. Dickinson deftly reassures her readers of this with innovative organization and management, life-like rhyme and rhythm, subtle but meaningful use of symbolism, and ironic metaphors.
Emily Dickinson is one of the most popular American poets of all time. Her poetry is seen as intense and passionate. Several of her many poems seem to be devoted to death and sadness. No one seems to know the exact connections between actual events in her life and the poetry that she wrote. The reader can see vivid images of Dickinson's ideas of death in several of her poems. Dickinson's use of imagery and symbolism are apparent in several of her death poems, especially in these three: "I Felt a Funeral in My Brain," "I Heard a Fly Buzz-When I Died," and "Because I Could Not Stop for Death."
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 is one of the numerous poets who uses death as the subject of several of her poems. In her poem "Because I Could Not Stop for Death," Death is portrayed as a gentleman who comes to give the speaker. a ride to eternity. Throughout the poem, Dickinson develops her unusual. interpretation of death and, by doing so, composes a poem full of imagery that is both unique and thought provoking.
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.
Dickinson, Emily. “Because I could not stop for Death.” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and writing. Seventh Edition. X.J. Kennedy, Dana Gioia. Saddle River. Pearson Education, 2013. 777. Print.
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
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 ...
Emily Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for Death” is a remarkable masterpiece that exercises thought between the known and the unknown. In Dickinson’s poem, “Because I could not stop Death,” there is much impression in the tone, in symbols and in the use of imagery that over flow with creativity. One might undoubtedly agree to an eerie, haunting, if not frightening, tone and use of symbolism in Dickinson’s poem.
Emily Dickinson is one of the most famous authors in American History, and a good amount of that can be attributed to her uniqueness in writing. In Emily Dickinson's poem 'Because I could not stop for Death,' she characterizes her overarching theme of Death differently than it is usually described through the poetic devices of irony, imagery, symbolism, and word choice.
For Dickinson, on the contrary, death is not something unreal. As the author has written "Because I could not stop for Death, he kindly stopped for me..." After reading these two lines the reader "imagines the picture of Death being a human which joins the author during the ride" . Dickinson tries to portray the characteristics of death in the poem. Stating that there is eternity after death, the author alludes both the possibility of the life after death and absolute zero-ness of it. Unlike Plath, Dickinson not only talks about the notion of death, but personalizes it. The reader feels that the author in fact...
While we now know this poem as “Because I Could Not Stop for Death”, it was originally an untitled piece. After Dickinson’s death, her younger sister Lavinia discovered an abundance (in fact over one thousand) of untitled poems that Emily had kept to herself, never meaning for them to become published works. Against her wishes the poems were published, but the fact that this wasn’t her intention allowed Dickinson to feel comfortable while writing and let her thoughts flow unfiltered into her work. This is what makes “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” and other works like it even more meaningful as we can be assured that they are completely untainted thoughts and feelings coming directly from Dickinson’s heart.
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.”