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Emily Dickinson Personification

Decent Essays

It is safe to say that almost everyone wonders what our lives are going to be like in the afterlife. What are we to be and do throughout all of eternity? Do we have any control over what the afterlife will be like for us? Emily Dickinson pondered these questions for the duration of her life and wrote many poems about dying and death. However, Dickinson had many different interpretations about what death and the afterlife would be like. Sometimes her views are very romantic, but other times they are intimidating and a little eerie. Many people agree that, “[Dickinson’s] poems’ greatness comes from the elaborate use of literary techniques to give shape to death, and the ambiguity of meaning that allows different interpretations of these journeys” …show more content…

She states, “Because I could not stop for Death-/ He kindly stopped for me” (1-2). These first two lines contain both of the aforementioned strategies. The speaker personifies Death by capitalizing the word to make it into a proper noun and additionally accompanies “Death” and the pronoun “he.” Personification emphasizes the humanistic traits of Death and negating any thought of Death being intimidating. Death is nothing but a gentleman caller awaiting her presence on the carriage. The speaker also uses juxtaposition when she describes Death as kind. Kindness and anything to do with death are not normally associated with each other, but by pairing these two opposites, she shows how the personified man of Death is not frightening and is doing her a favor. The speaker couldn’t find time for Death, but he caught up to her. It is clear that in this part of the poem, Death is being romanticized and it seems as though the journey, while possibly unexpected, is not necessarily feared. Without a fight, the speaker stepped into the carriage with Death, showing acceptance of her situation. She wants to pass this thought on to her audience to show that there is no control over when it is our time to go, when Death says it is time for the journey, we must welcome and join

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