Because I Could Not Stop For Death Essay

In the poem “Because I could Not stop for Death”, Emily Dickinson describes death as an experience that she is looking back on. Dickinson uses a variety of elements, such as personification, imagery and irony to get her point across that death is not a dreadful event, but actually a pleasant experience. Although death is often perceived as being depressing and frightening, it should be viewed in a positive way realizing that it is the beginning of eternity.

The reason the speaker so desperately wants to be in his dreams is because the funeral being prepared is his own, and the dreams are the proverbial ‘white light’ one sees just before they pass on. In this poem, once again, death is saving the speaker from witnessing pain and

The similarities in the poem deal with similar topics expressed throughout the poem dealing with Keats’ and Longfellow’s fear of death. Differences between the two include the structure and the different images, metaphors and diction that they give off along with their different train of thoughts while writing the two poems. Their thoughts of the subject of death are able to relate to a variety of people because everyone is just human and cannot last forever. Just as these two poems show similar ideas can branch off into many different ideas and interpretations. The desire to continue to

Whitman also describes death in a very delicate manner, which allows the reader to feel that death is in a way, good. For instance, he describes the soldiers as noisy in war, but when they die, there is silence. Silence resembles death, yet it's not a negative way of expressing it. As the poet encounters with more memories of suffering, he calls to death: "Come sweet death! be persuaded O beautiful death!/ In mercy come quickly" (lines 44-45). He believes death will alleviate the pains and that it is good. Another delicate way of describing death, and an excellent choice of words, is when he says he recalls "the experience (as) sweet and sad" (line 63) These young soldiers have so much life ahead of them and they are dying, this makes it 'sad'. Yet since they are suffering so much, it's 'sweet' that they die. In this particular poem, Whitman portrays an attitude of positive welcoming of death.

In Patricia Engle’s review of Emily Dickinson’s poem “Because I Could Not Stop For Death”, Engle argues that Dickinson’s poem employs Death as a lover who takes whomever is reading the poem to “heaven”, if you will. She also posits the idea that our eventual death is just a state of mind and we do not all follow the same path to reach Death. The poem, at its core, is about the visceral fear of Death and not wanting to die. I disagree with Engle’s assessment. Engle’s take on Dickinson’s poem is an inaccurate one because it explains that Dickinson does not seem to be afraid of death, that Dickinson is very spiritually aware and even accepting of her eventual fate, and that Dickinson, or the speaker of the poem, has accepted death so he has “stopped” for her.

By the end of the poem, the narrator states that “since then ‘tis centuries; but each feels shorter than the day I first surmised the horses’ heads were toward eternity” (Source A). This stanza declared that it has been centuries since the narrator died and hints that the narrator’s soul is still alive and will exist for eternity. Therefore, the poem describes a perception of death that when it is time for death to reign, its force and power cannot be overthrown. Due to this, death should be accepted instead of feared.

"Because I could not stop for Death" is one of the most puzzling poems Emily Dickinson wrote. “Scholars who stress these subversive qualities note that this poet appropriated conventional language, images, and themes and twisted them, disrupting their usual meaning.” (Dunlap, 2) In this poem, she describes death in hindsight. She commentates the experience play by play, chronicling her actions and vision from the time he arrived to pick her up in his carriage to her final resting place. In the poem, the impression of death is not portrayed as scary or daunting, but rather more as tranquil and peaceful. In the poem, death took on the image of a person. Through personification, he was portrayed more like a male suitor picking up his companion for a date. Dickinson guided us to believe that the speaker in the poem is talking and describing her journey with death to us from beyond the grave. She leads us to believe that the speaker is ghost-like or a spirit who has accepted her death and content with her boundless eternity. It is not surprising that “Because I could not stop for Death” incites so much controversy in that it presents complex and multi-dimensional concepts of both life and death, both of which are too mysterious to be fully expressed. In “Because I could not stop for Death”, Dickinson does personify both death and Immortality as people, and presents the process of dying as eternal life. However in a bizarre twist, she also personifies life. She brings

In “Because I could not stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson, Dickinson personifies something I never thought could be personified: death. In the poem, death is a “he” who is on a carriage ride with the narrator to the narrator's death. In lines one and two, Dickinson writes, “Because I could not stop for Death-- He kindly waited for me.” This is personification because death cannot literally stop to wait for someone. Here, death is not associated with its usual connotations such as fear, but with peace and kindness, which is ironic. In line three, the poem reads, “The Carriage held but just Ourselves-- And Immortality.” In this line, immortality is also included in the carriage ride, contrasting death. This is personification because immortality

“Because I could not stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson has written in 1863. Emily Dickinson was born in 1830-86, she is one of the greatest poets in American literature. Dickinson wrote love poems which it indicates strong attachment because of this it 's difficult to know if does poems where subjects of her feelings or just part of her poetic imagination. The different tension that comes from her work is due to the cause of not accepting orthodox religion, “the flood subject”- immortality, and her rebellious (Emily Dickinson). We can see that this poem is one of many that were later discovered because the title and the first line of the poem are the same. Death came to take the speaker into his carriage and drive around in it. By the first passing to a school where children play. Then passing grain field and looking at the sun. The last stop is an old “house” getting eaten by the surrounding vegetation. Lastly, she comes to realize that centuries have passed, but only feeling like days, and moving to eternity (Dickinson). The meaning of “Because I Could not stop for Death” is that journey to death and its feelings. The separation of the stanza, it shows the different steps in how death feels and word choices.

The Poem begins with a personification of death as "kindly" (3). By doing this, the speaker introduces a portrayal on death that might have conflictions. Most of the times, death has a negative connotation. Whether it is an inevitable or tragic view, it opposes to what is seen in the poem. The speaker accepts death as a friendly invitation when the time is right, rather than something that is bound to happen. The speaker then joins immortality, personified as a passenger in a carriage. Immortality simply cannot be a passenger as it is a non-living thing. The reasoning for this could be that immortality ties together the link between the speaker and death, ultimately introducing the voyage to come. The first stanza sets a precedent of a meter to follow throughout most of the poem. The first line contains eight

Dickinson starts the first stanza of the poem with, “Because I could not stop for Death – He kindly stopped for me” (807). Clearly she was not ready to go, death simply took her by surprise and brought her busy life to a halt. This could be seen as a beautiful way to take on death because death is usually said in such a morbid tone and the fact she associated “kindly” with death makes it beautiful. The second line says, “The Carriage held but just Ourselves – and Immortality” (Dickinson 807). The author emphasizes Carriage, Ourselves, and Immortality. Dickinson seems to be talking about her own death chariot and by immortality, she believes her death is not the end, but rather as a step to eternal life.

In these passages, poetry can be directly related to the possibility of death being averted. One by keep the drive awake and not falling asleep at the wheel. The other, had May reached for some of her late husband’s med and not the book by Yeats she may have

There is a lot of death in the poem, but it balances out with the passions read on the note. Also, he believed himself great and he came to his end with his

Both poems are sonnets that focus on early death; however, each poet displays different emotions for life and death in their poems. On the one hand, Keats displays an optimistic view of life, but is contemptuous towards death since it will mark an unwanted end to his artistic, romantic, and countless other endeavors. On the other, Longfellow distrusts life and fears death. As an indicator of these contrasting sentiments, the poets not only use significantly different types of poems, but they also differ in their rhetorical devices’ purposes in the shared iambic pentameter structure. In particular, they use imagery, diction, mechanical devices and metaphors in varying extents and purposes.

In 1890, Emily Dickens wrote, “Because I could not stop for Death”. This poem depicted Dickens’ acceptance of death. In the first Stanza, Dickens portrays Death as a gentleman in a carriage, along with a third passenger, Immortality. With narrative and poetic elements like figures of speech such as personification, allusion, alliteration, anaphora, imagery, punctuation, meter, and form, Dickens incorporates the theme of death with collective calmness and acceptance. The poem is replete with personification of Death.