Because I Could Not Stop For Death

2 Pages 474 Words

Because I could not stop for death

In this classic poem Emily Dickinson realizes that to escape death is impossible and she shows that it need not be painful, therefore the poem maintains a serene tone throughout. Although not necessarily depicted as a sadistic murderer of innocence, death is indeed personified by Dickinson to a certain extent, --as an unavoidable conqueror—one hanging over us and around us, --inescapable.
The first line tells us exactly what we’re reading about and what we can expect. There is no gradual build up to the main point as is the case with the works of some other poets. Instead, there is merely a progression of explanation. Many years beyond the grave, the narrator portrays the placid process of her passing, in which death is personified as he escorts Emily to the carriage. During her slow ride she realizes that the ride will last for all eternity. “The carriage held but just Ourselves-And Immortality.” It is my opinion that the speaker in this poem exemplified the voice of all people—not wanting to. She ‘could not stop for death’ as none of us really believe we can or that we have the time. Most people die unexpectedly—and are not ready to stop everything they have and want to do just to cease living. It seems that the narrator in this case had too much for which to live and she had not finished her life. Hence, she tried to delay death; --to sidestep it. None of us want to die but none of us can prevent it. The narrator of the poem is especially human and chillingly realistic in that sense. And so the cliché reminds us, death will find us when we hide from it. By riding with death, however, the narrator fools herself into thinking that she is not dead. She has found immortality by riding along “with” death. As we pass the school, the fields, and the sun, we pass through all the stages of life. Death does not come quickly. Rather, it arrives with a menacing slo...