Emily Dickinson was born December 10th 1830. Throughout her life, she seldom left her home and visitors were few. The people with whom she did come in contact, however, had an enormous impact on her poetry. She is known for her poignant and compressed verse, which …show more content…
She talks of Death as a person, “Because I could not stop for Death- Death kindly stopped for me-” It makes the poem more personal, Death as a person, shows his patients and his kindness. It makes her seem less alone, as if Death is there with her. The purpose of this is to show people the gradual acceptance of their death. By portraying Death as something so sensible as a gentleman calms our fears about death.
The use of Repetition for the saying “We passed” is used in the third stanza to show the memories that pass when Death comes. The descriptions used, “We passed the School, where Children strove At Recess – in the Ring – We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain – We passed the Setting Sun –” shows how life passes, just like her memories.
The second and fourth lines of stanzas one, two, four, five, and six rhyme. Furthermore, some of the lines contain only close rhymes. In the third stanza there is no end rhyme at all. The rhyme is scattered unevenly throughout the poem tying the words together …show more content…
The shift occurs at this line, “Since then – ‘tis Centuries – and yet Feels shorter than the Day” as it shifts from the past to the present. This line talks about how death in eternity, and her memory of deaths walking, how it felt like yesterday, but it has been centuries since that day. Showing that she has been dead for centuries and that death is not scary, “I first surmised the Horses’ Heads Were toward Eternity –.”
This poem, “Because I could not stop for death” is just the beginning of the poem, Emily Dickinson never titled her poems. She never meant to publish he poems. Using this as the title of the poem is quite literal with the meaning that due to not stopping for death, it “kindly” came for her.
The theme of this poem is to embrace the inevitable happening of all living things; Death. She creates a figure of Death as not a evil thing but a calm and kind gentleman. The opening lines confirm this, “He kindly stopped for me –”. It’s is also shown by Death going back and showing her nostalgic memories. These memories of the schoolyard at recess and the fields of grain. The poem clearly explains to embrace the life with happiness until Death “kindly” comes in a