Walt Whitman's Because I Could Not Stop For Death

Emily Dickinson was an American poet born on December 10, 1830 in Amherst Massachusetts. It was only upon her death on May 15, 1886 that her family discovered thousands of her poems. One of her most prolific piece of work is “Because I could not stop for death” published in 1860 the poem uses personification, symbols and metaphors to highlight her concern and point of view on death as well as life. In the poem, Dickinson speaks about death in a blithe way setting the overall tone in a calm manner. The poem uses imagery and her ironic tone to give the message that death should not be feared, but instead one should make the best out of life.

“Afraid! Of whom am I afraid? Not Death – for who is He?” (F345). Dickinson, on the other hand, was not shaken by the thought of death, but rather welcomed it. Dickinson’s poetry not only portrayed death as nothing to fear, but it also counterbalanced society’s disdain for death. In one of Dickinson’s most popular poems, she writes “Because I could not stop for death- he kindly stopped for me” (F479). Culture typically sees death as an unwelcome end that everyone must face, but her poetry depicts death as being kind enough to halt its progress to accommodate her. Why is Emily Dickinson’s poetry so in love with death? Death is the only reliable constant (Ottlinger, 42). “All but Death, Can be adjusted Dynasties repaired – Systems – settled in the Sockets – Citadels – dissolved – Wastes of Lives – resown with Colors By Succeeding Springs – Death – unto itself – Exception – is exempt from Change -” (F789). Perhaps the harshest aspect of her poetry’s death is that after it has taken another soul, life moves on simply

Emily Dickinson's most famous work, "Because I Could Not Stop for Death" is generally considered to be one of the great masterpieces of American poetry (GALE). Dickinson experienced an emotional crisis of an undetermined nature in the early 1860's. Her traumatized state of mind is believed to have inspired her writing. In this particular poem, “Because I could not stop for Death,” the deceased narrator of the poem reminisces about that material day when Death came seeking for her. In stanza one of the poem, the speaker states that she had always been too occupied to give room to death, so in good manner, he stopped for her. She further remarks that, in his carriage, she was accompanied by Immortality alongside Death. "The Carriage held

Walt Whitman's was a writer and poet born in the 1800's He lived in Long Island NY, he temporary took a post for the paymaster once before and volunteered to help with wounded soldiers so he saw different views of the world.He also was a journalist humanist and

Walt Whitman was born in 1819, a second son to a housebuilder and one of 9 children. He worked as a printer at an early age, this is where he became enamored with the written word. Working as a printer in New York until a fire devastated the printing section of the city he was self-taught reading the works of Homer, Dante and the Bible. Whitman worked as a teacher for several years before becoming a journalist, full-time and establishing the paper The Long Islander. He worked as an editor for several papers before moving to New Orleans to become the editor of The Crescent where he first experienced the reality of the slave trade. Returning to his hometown of Brooklyn in Long Island he founded the newspaper the Brooklyn Freeman and continued

Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman both were American poets who lived in the 19th century who strayed from the traditional style of writing poetry and formed their own individual style of writing which became the unique American style of poetry. Their lifestyles and writing styles were extremely different, as they shared little in common. The dissimilarities in these two poets are in the way they composed their poems and possibly in the content of the poems. Whitman established a unique style in the form of using free verse and Dickinson in her peculiar use of punctuation to establish her unique style of poetry.

Walt Whitman was born in 1819 in Long Island but moved to live in New Jersey where he spent most of his life. He was known as an American poet and journalist. He expressed himself in poetry by describing his life and American lives as a poem. His first published poem was Leaves of Grass in 1855, which later became known as Song of Myself. Ezra Pound was born in 1885 and died in Venice Italy, 1972. He was an American poet that criticized other poems and worked with other novelist and poets to help shape their work. Pound wrote an essay explaining his thoughts and opinions on Whitman’s poem. Pound believed that Whitman was a writer who developed a new style of writing. He describes Whitman as a writer who was not

Emily Dickinson was born on December 10th, 1830 to Edward and Emily Dickinson in Amherst, Massachusetts. In the year 1833, her little sister Lavinia was born into the family. During February of 1852, A Valentine was published in the Springfield Republican. That was one of the first poems that she had written. Emily Dickinson was an amazing poet that wrote

The poem “Because I Could Not Stop Death” by Emily Dickinson is one of my favorite poems since high school. I chose this poem due to the fact that that Emily Dickinson is one of my favorite poets, I personally love her dark, and mysterious poems. Indeed, people believed she was a little messed up in the head, but I believe she was just misunderstood. Additionally, this poem definitely brought back terrifying memories. When couple years ago, I got into a horrible car accident with a drunk driver, the accident was so traumatizing that I recall seeing my life flash before my eyes, it was like my soul was retracing my steps. In this poem, Emily is in a carriage riding around familiar places that she was been to since she was a young child, which to me it sounds like she was retracing her steps. It does represent a personal value due the fact that I believe life is short and one really never knows when it is there time to go.

Emily Dickinson was born December 10, 1830, Amherst, MA to Edward Dickinson, a Yale graduate and politician, and Emily Norcross Dickinson. She was the middle child with an older brother, William Austin Dickinson and a younger sister, Lavinia Norcross Dickinson. She went to school at Amherst Academy for seven years (1840–1847) and she went to Mount Holyoke College. Emily Dickinson is very well-known for her life of social seclusion. Though she is known as one the greatest poets of all time, she was not known of as a great poet during her lifetime. After she died her sister, Lavinia, found hundreds of poems Emily had written. Without these poems, American Literature would have been set back many years. She, along with Walt Whitman, is considered

The subject of death, including her own was a very prevalent theme in Emily Dickinson’s poems and letters. Some may find her preoccupation with death morbid, but this was not unusual for her time period. The mindset during Ms. Dickinson’s time was that of being prepared to die, in the 19th century people died of illness and accidents at an alarming rate, not to mention the Civil War had a high number of casualties, she also lived 15 years of her youth next to a cemetery. Dickinson’s view on death was never one of something to be feared she almost romanized death, in her poem “Because I Could not Stop for Death”, she actually personifies death while narrating from beyond the grave. In the first stanza she states “I could not stop for

Emily Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts and died on May 15, 1886, also in Amherst, Massachusetts. During the 55 years of her life, she wrote nearly 1,800 poems. Very few of these poems were published during her life, most of them only being discovered by her sister after Dickinson’s death (Crash Course). Nearly all of her poems are highly complex, either being rich allegorical qualities or frequently contradicting themselves. In fact, Dickinson’s poetry tended to be so contradictory that she has been regarded as the “poet of paradox”. Growing up, the poet claimed to be “haunted by the menace of death” (Crash Course), and therefore wrote many poems about death, immortality, and time. She also wrote a lot about

She believes death to be an unavoidable requisite for all living beings to eventually fulfill, and she writes “Because I could not stop for Death--(479)” to express her acceptance of this as well as imagine what she thinks the afterlife might be like. The lines, “Because I could not stop for Death – / He kindly stopped for me – / The Carriage held but just Ourselves – / And Immortality,” (1-4) state how death will find her someday even if she does not ever ask for it, as no one is immortal. She nonchalantly boards the figurative carriage alongside Death and remarks, “We passed the School, where Children strove / At Recess – in the Ring – / We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain – / We passed the Setting Sun – / Or rather – He passed Us – / The Dews drew quivering and Chill – / For only Gossamer, my Gown / –My Tippet – only Tulle –,” (9-16). Dickinson frames death in a light and optimistic manner, in which she joins Death for a scenic journey to the afterlife. She portrays herself as casual and curious about this experience, and there is not one feeling of pessimism nor regret in Dickinson’s account of death when compared to that of Thomas. Putting forth her imagination and creativity, Dickinson also describes what the actual afterlife might be. The lines, “Since then – 'tis Centuries – and yet / Feels shorter than the Day / I first surmised the Horses' Heads/ Were toward Eternity,” (21-24) portray the

Whitman was born on May 31, 1819 in West Hills, Long Island; to a working class family. He was the second of nine children. In his very young years of his life he grew up in New York. At that time it was still developing into a big city. Whitman had many jobs, he worked as a journalist, a teacher, a government clerk, and on the side in addition to publishing his poetry he was a volunteer nurse during the American Civil War. Later on in Whitman’s life he moved back to New York and became an editor.

“I celebrate myself, and sing myself / and what I shall assume you shall assume” (Whitman 1-2). These lines not only open up the beginning of one the best poems of the American Romantic period, but they also represent a prominent theme of one of this period’s best poet, Walt Whitman. In Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself, Whitman deals with his time period’s most prominent theme of democracy. Whitman tells readers that they must not only observe the democratic life but they must become one with it. As Whitman states, “For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you” (3). Democracy provides a connection with all people. It is as if Joseph Stella felt this connection and decided to depict it in his collection of paintings entitled “Americans in the Rough.” The individual is of no greater or lesser worth than anyone else. Beatrice Marovich states that, “It is a song for fellow Americans, about the American body politic” (349). An analysis of Song of Myself portrays that understanding and becoming one with democracy through political collectivity essentially sets the stage for the American democratic self. Joseph Stella does a great job of interpreting and depicting Whitman’s ideals of democracy through his illustrations representing every facet of an American democratic life.