The capitalized ‘Death’ conveys a sense of character for it. She puts away her ‘labour’ ‘leisure too’, everything she has in life, for his ‘Civility’. She is trying to say that death is not unpleasant by taking away life but it’s an unstoppable part of the cycle of life. She also describes her marriage to Death, signifying both the final deal in demise and, like marriage itself, an
Analysis of Emily Dickinson’s “Because I Could Not Stop For Death” Why was Emily Dickinson so obsessed with death? Emily Dickinson, a poet who lived in the nineteenth century, often centered her poetry surrounding the theme of death. Dickinson was born into a wealthy family and received some higher education at Amherst Academy and Mount Holyoke Female Seminary before homesickness overcame her (Habegger). Dickinson never married, which was unusual for the time period, and became a recluse later in life (Habegger). Many of Dickinson’s immediate and extended family members fell ill and died due to “consumption”, which is known today as Tuberculosis (Habegger).
Analyzing “Because I Could Not Stop for Death.” People have long enjoyed Emily Dickinson’s poem “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” because of its unique treatment of a usually somber subject. Rather than fearing death, her narrator has no qualms about joining him for the final journey. By making Death seem almost gentlemanly, Dickinson lessens our fear. To fully understand “Because I Could Not Stop for Death,” it helps to analyze the elements of theme, personification, and symbolism. The theme of “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” is that death finds us all eventually.
“Because I could not stop for Death” is about someone seeing her death every day and different parts of her life she has gone through that lead up to her death. The journey to the grave begins in the first stanza, when death comes calling in a carriage immortality is also a passenger. As the trip continues the carriage trundles along at an easy, unhurried pace, suggesting that death has arrived in the form of a disease that takes its time to kill. Then, in the author appears to review the stages of her life: childhood , maturity, and the descent into death. There, she experiences a chill because she is not warmly dressed.
This poem is one of many among her works that deals with death and dying, and this particular is interesting in part because the speaker is obviously dead and is looking back on the experience of dying. The tone, however, is calm resignation and serene detachment. In the first four lines, the poet seems to be too busy living, and so Death "kindly stopped for me," and then the poet introduces the metaphor of a journey with "the Carriage held just ourselves. . .
About her journey to her destination, Dickinson writes, “Because I could not stop for Death, / He kindly stopped for me”(1-2). This clearly personifies “Death” as a person by capitalizing the first letter as if it were a name of a person. Beginning her uninvited stroll, Dickinson also states, “The carriage held but just ourselves/And Immortality.” (3-4). This exposes you to “Immortality”, a third person (which is indicated by the first letter being capitalized as if it were a person) accompanying “Death” and Dickinson throughout their journey. The carriage is a symbol of her passing over and leaving life.
“Because I Could Not Stop For Death” by Emily Dickinson: an Explication Emily Dickinson is known for writing about poetry and its connection to death. The poem suggests some type of peace with death. It is not hard to see death as a comfort after reading "Because I Could Not Stop for Death". However, the grave becomes insignificant and death losses control. This gives eternal life after death the victory.
The poem portrays death as a very kind entity that did the speaker a kindness by coming for him or her since they could not “stop for death.” Throughout the poem, this journey is depicted as carriage ride in which the person that has died notices the daily routines of life as something to pass by and learns that death means immortality, for she no longer has a concept of time in a traditional sense. In no moment does the speaker feel Death is threatening and actually welcomes Death as a kind and gentle being so her attitude and tone is very accepting throughout. In The Man He Killed, a soldier wonders if his killing of the “enemy” is justifiable in any way. He pictures in his mind that, had it not been for the circumstances of war, they could have maybe sat down to some beers and even be friends. He goes on to say that he killed the other man on the grounds that they were war enemies and could not think of any other
I Heard A Fly Buzz When I Died: Dickinson's View on Death Emily Dickinson's poem, “I Heard A Fly Buzz When I Died” is a poem that has been discussed thoroughly because of its morbid and psychologically unsettling content. In the poem, Dickinson describes the process of her own death and funeral, as people watch on. Dickinson was known to be very depressed and lived a rather sad life, and this was often reflected in her poetic work. Dickinson describes her own death calmly, she doesn't seem disturbed or upset about it. Critic Lilia Melani stated that “The death in this poem is painless, yet the vision of death it presents is horrifying, even gruesome.
This is a symbol for the elegance and calmness in death. The first part of the poem is as the speaker rides along leisurely towards her final destination, although it is not reveled yet as to what that is. The second part of the poem is stanzas five and six. The author used high level diction to show how the end result, death in this case, is pleasant and still civil in a way. “Paused”, “swelling”, “scarcely”, “cornice”, “surmised”, and “eternity” show how the end of the journey has been reached, and everything is dissipating.