Emily Dickinson's Because I Could Not Stop For Death

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The poem 'Because I Could Not Stop for Death' by Emily Dickinson explores the speaker's reflection on death. The poem focuses on the concept of life after death. This poem's setting mirrors the circumstances by which death approaches, and death appears kind and compassionate. It is through the promise of immortality that fear is removed, and death not only becomes acceptable, but welcomed as well. This poem rhyme scheme is ABCB in Iambic meter. The speaker is escorted by “Death” and accompanied by “Immortality”, headed towards her final destination, which is eternity. The speaker clearly implies that ‘Death’ is not something to be afraid of. Instead of offending, Death is described with such a kindness: “He kindly stopped for me” (line 2, stanza 1); and gentleness: “We slowly drove – he knew no haste” (line 1, stanza 2). Enchanted by his kindness, the woman has no other options but to leave her mortal life behind: “And I had put away / My labor and my leisure too,” (line 3 & 4, stanza 2) to…show more content…
As the result, the usage of personification makes it easy for the reader to imagine and visualize the whole storyline of this poem. Thus, the visual imagery aspect could really works at its best on this poem. As the journey continued, memories, stages and phases of her life were slowly flooding back into her mind. The childhood: “We passed the School, where Children strove” (line 1, stanza 3), the adulthood: “We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain” (line 2, stanza 3), and the “setting sun” which is the time when she is in the verge of her death. After this moment of seeing the coldness of her death, the carriage pauses at her new “House.” The description of the house—“A Swelling of the Ground—“—makes it clear that this is no cottage, but instead a grave. Yet they only “pause” at this house, because although it is supposedly her home, it is really only a resting place as she travels to
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