Because I Could Not Stop For Death Essay

The poetry of Emily Dickinson is some of the most profound works of the 19th century. Dickinson’s masterful style can captivate audiences and bring them along for a ride. One of her most famous and acclaimed literary journey’s is “Because I Could Not Stop for Death”. The poem personifies death as a suitor who is taking the narrator for a carriage ride. It is an intriguing point of view providing a metaphor for life. But Emily Dickson’s “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” is more than a look at life it is a guide to experiencing the inevitability of death. In the first stanza of Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for Death” the character of Death is personified as a carriage driver. Unlike other works of literature, Death is not grim nor gruesome but instead a proper gentleman. He is not in a hurry to take the Narrator straight to the grave for he is the one that “stops for one who could not stop for him” (Glenn). Words like “kindly” and “civility” further enforce this idea that Death is a man of honor. Strangely the Narrator …show more content…
the symbolism of the movement through life begins in stanza three. The Narrator and Death pass by key moments of the Narrator’s life. They first pass a school where children are playing. This scene represents the childhood of the Narrator. The times of learning and play are long past her when the carriage continues past “fields of grazing grain”. These fields could symbolize adulthood and work. Due to the fact that grain is usually associated with the hard work of farming. Dickinson uses the setting sun as a symbol for the end of the Narrator’s life. The curtains are closing as the carriage gets closer and closer to the grave. This setting sun also marks the passage of time in the poem. The ride seems to have taken all day further implying the patience of Death. This journey has taken so much time but as night falls the reality of whats to come sets