"Because I Could Not Stop for Death" Analysis

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“Because I could Not Stop for Death” Analysis Emily Dickinson is known for writing poems with references to death, and most people say that she was infatuated with the idea of death and the “mystery” of eternity. At the period of time when Emily Dickenson wrote “Because I Could Not Stop for Death”, she was going through a time of extreme loneliness and conceivably, depression. In the first stanza, the speaker refers to how death “kindly” stopped. This demonstrates that there was no resentment towards death. Also, this permits us to believe that the speaker was very busy with other difficulties and in a sense, had no time to die. We can see this in the first line of the first stanza. “Because I could not stop for Death…” We can conjecture from the poem, that there are three other characters other than the speaker. These three characters are, Death, Immortality, and the Sun. Death plays a title role of someone who, from Emily Dickinson’s time period, would be referred to as a caller, while Immortality would be considered more of a close friend. These relationships go to prove that unlike most people would surmise, Death and Immortality are not enemies, but merely friend helping the speaker progress towards eternity. Throughout the entire poem, Dickinson describes everything that she, Death, and Immortality see on their journey. This really allows the reader to realize that when one dies, nothing will be carried with them to their eternity. For example, the word “passed” is used four times all through the piece. Another major theme seen in this poem is the inevitability of death. Even though the speaker was not exactly prepared to pass on to perpetuity, she had no choice. In no manner did Death ever ask if she desired to accompany him to eternity. It was accepted as a mandatory requirement of her. One can tell from the fourth stanza that the

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