Because I Couldn't Stop for Death by Emily Dickinson

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In today’s world even something like death can be predicted. The doctors can say that there are four months left, that the disease is spreading and that it will all be over soon. Truly imaging something like that is hard. Still, death is inevitable for anyone, so why live for it? Emily Dickinson conveys this point in her poem, “Because I couldn’t stop for Death.” No, this poem isn’t talking about someone fighting through a life taking disease. In fact, it never says why the speaker died. Still, it’s the same concept. Emily Dickinson stresses that we all need to slow down and appreciate life rather than just marathon through it in “Because I could not stop for Death.” Every day words are constantly used. It doesn’t matter whether they’re being written, spoken or even signed. Regardless, they are never just words, they’re language, the difference? Words are just used to get something out, nothing special, they’re just there, but language is used to express. The language that is used means everything because through language emotions can be read like a book. Dickinson used this in her favor to convey the main theme on her poem. Why did she capitalize the word ‘Haste’? Well, that’s just as if she had emphasized a specific word in a spoken conversation. She wanted a pause there, some time to really think about it, the word ‘haste’ specifically means to speed, in her poem she says, “We slowly drove-He knew no Haste,” (Dickinson 5). When broken down it’s really quite simple, she is emphasizing speed, emphasizing that he knew no speed, that slow is okay, that slow gives time to appreciate life. Dickinson then goes on to say, “I put away my labor and my leisure too/ for his civility-” (7-8). The use of the words ‘labor’ and ‘leisure’ are s...

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...own is gossamer. Literally, the gown isn’t made of cobwebs, this is figurative. Now, the speaker has passed into death and has found out the true dreariness of it all, cobwebs for dresses and sunlight all gone. They passed beauty that had all along gone unnoticed to find darkness and dinginess in the afterlife. The little glimpses of figurative language in this poem further evoke emotions of regret and defeat. In, “Because I could not stop for Death,” Emily Dickinson expands the thoughts of death. The poem goes through the journey into the afterlife. It explains every emotion of regret and sadness pertaining to the journey. Dickinson uses language, symbols and figurative language to further express her claim. This claim that she proves is that humankind really needs to slow down, that life needs to be further appreciated because living for death isn’t living at all.

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