Because I Could Not Stop for Death- Emily Dickinson

Because I Could Not Stop For Death
Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson's 'Because I Could Not Stop For Death' is a poem where death is presented as a chivalrous suitor who takes us on a relaxing journey to a peaceful end. Dickinson personifies death as the benevolent lover she never acquired during her reclusive life, and as a result, presents readers with an uncommon perspective of death from a prolific persona.
The poem has rhyming quatrains bringing a celebratory mood to the concept of death. It accentuates the temperate, collected nature of death which is then changed in the 4th stanza when the mood changes to a more supernatural, ghostly feel. In the last stanza, when the persona has moved into death, the imagery becomes abstract, revealing the veiled and mysterious nature of death.
In the first stanza, Dickinson personifies death as a benevolent suitor, who has come to guide her on a journey from life to afterlife. She clearly welcomes death, and is unafraid of leaving her mortal life behind perhaps because as a woman, Dickinson was unattached to the world as she did not have a lover, and lived an extremely reclusive life. Therefore ending her life on earth was not a worry to her but rather something she received gladly. Death is personified in this stanza as Dickinson makes 'Death' a noun, she goes on to give him human characteristics such as 'kindly stopping' for the persona. Since she did not have the ability to die by her own will, she was glad when death came to meet her. The fact that he pays special attention to her by coming to meet her in a 'carriage' furthers his presentation as a suitor, perhaps the one Dickinson never acquired during her lifetime. The inevitability of dying is shown by use of punctuation with a full stop after 'Immortality' despite the lack of punctuation present in the rest of the stanza. This makes the reader realise that death will meet everyone, and it is our reaction to death which may make our journey into the afterlife either a peaceful pleasure as Dickinson describes or an unexpected and unpleasant adventure as is portrayed by others. However, because the persona is speaking about an event that happened in the past, she informs us that there is survival after death. Dickinson’s Christian view of eternity and the immortality of life even after death is evident in this stanza.
The Second stanza describes the persona being charmed by deaths civility. She describes them both driving 'slowly,' an adverb which reveals that death has no concept of time, which is but an earthly concern. It could also be a reference to a 'slow death' as to say a disease, which in fact Dickinson did experience at the end of her life. The persona informs us about her jouney with death, "We slowly drove" and "He knew no haste," the "We" allows the reader to initially think the persona has some control over the pace, but Dickinson quickly reminds us that "He" is the one determining the relaxed pace, again showing his superiority in being a male suitor, with the persona surrendering willingly to his control. Death is shown to be the final journey, with the persona having to 'put away' her 'labour and leisure too' for deaths 'civility.' Labour and leisure, the two parts of life, are not capitalised, reveling that death's civility has made these earth bound duties insignificant to the persona who is willing to go with Death, perhaps because she found him so surprisingly charming. She appears to be seduced by his good manners, which then makes us question whether death is truly as pleasant as she makes out, or whether the persona is simply being deceived by his actions which allure her into a sense of false security, causing her to be at peace with him.
The third stanza shows the persona reflecting on her newly ended life as they pass into eternity. The imagery in this stanza shows the stages of life that are experienced by all, and the presence of death in this stanza accentuates its inevitability and its presence as simply another aspect of life. The repetition of "We passed" shows progression and the predictable and tedious nature of life in comparison to the mysterious, alluring nature of death. The innocence of childhood symbolised by the "school" is first passed and is associated with the excitement and action as the children "strove at recess," something we experience during the first stages of our life. The children, far from death and overflowing with life, can be contrasted with the submissive, conformable nature of the persona who is seated beside death himself, making the reader realise the effect death can have, showing that the closer we get, the more accepting we tend to become. The persona and death then pass 'the fields of gazing grain' symbolising the working days of ones life and the natural world as it watches her pass by. They then pass the 'setting sun' symbolising the end of life, as the sun is a universal clock by which human life is measured. As they pass it, she seems to pass into another dimension, with death her comforter at her side.
In stanza four there is a change in mood as she nears the end of her journey into the afterlife. The rhythm slows down, with more syllables adding to the eerie mood being created by Dickinson. Death is shown again to have no concept of time as in the last stanza they passed the setting sun. However, the persona then rethinks "or rather- he passed us" revealing that time stops for death but the world continues its course for the living. The cold is accentuated, with the alliteration of "Dews drew" the verb "quivering" and adjective "chill" which bring forth an eerie atmosphere for the first time as the persona is describing an afterlife experience, her growing cold being a shadow to the fact she is dying. However, the persona excuses the cold as a result of her "Gossamer, gown" and "tulle tippet" which reveals she was unprepared, and death was an unexpected stranger who nonetheless she welcomed. The "Gossamer gown" is more like a wedding dress, which presents death as a new beginning rather than an end as it is usually supposed. She is not mourning death, but rather, because he is her lover she welcomes him and supposes that the cold she is feeling is not a result of death's nature but rather her own doing. To the reader, it seems that perhaps she is blinded by death's chivalry and does not notice the dark place she is being taken to. We fear for her, and her complete trust and comfort in death is again a reflection of her religious perspective as death is not a dark end to life, but merely a door to the beginning of a wonderful eternity.
The fifth stanza accentuates the comfort the persona finds in death and the calm nature in which she faces her grave. The persona and death "Pause" before the "swelling of the ground." The first stop was at the beginning of the journey when death came to collect her, and this second stop we assume, is the end of the persona's journey with death. Dickinson describes the grave using the euphemism "house" which we consider to be a synonym with "dwelling" and "home," which both have many positive connotations, showing the comfort and calm the persona felt at the end of her final journey. She has not seen the entire house, but a mere 'cornice in the ground' and yet because the persona so trusts death, and is accepting of him, she remains calm and by his side. We can perhaps argue that the persona did not know the house was her final resting place, as she merely described the house as being 'a' house and does not show any knowledge of it in fact being 'her' grave. In this respect death could be described as being cunning and subtle as she has been deceived to think death was kind and chivalrous.
The sixth stanza reveals that the persona is in fact prolific and reveals the nature of death in that is not bound by time. Dickinson reveals that since her journey with death it has been "centuries" which shows death has no sense of time since it yet 'feels shorter than the day.' Another interpretation of this however, is that it is in fact an intentional exaggeration that is not meant literally since great moments of human revelation seem to stretch out forever and the mystery of death and afterlife must be the greatest of these, explaining the 'centuries'. The fact that she remembers her journey with death makes death extremely memorable as she has lived her whole life, and her most vivid memory is death. The last stanza is tied to the first with the comfortable alliteration of the 'horses heads' which we suppose were drawing the carriage in the first stanza. The lack of punctuation after the word "Eternity" shows the timespan of death which is eternal, whereas the full stop after "Immortality" shows that it ends whereas eternity goes on forever. This brings the poem to a calm close and furthers the persona's relaxed, trusting attitude towards death.
Dickinson's portrayal of death is understandable due to her reclusive life and the lack of a lover, as well as the lack of attachment to physical possessions. Therefore we understand that she welcomed death as a benevolent, civil trusted suitor, and especially due to her religious beliefs, she did not see death as the end of life but merely the beginning to her long awaited afterlife. However, as readers who do not necessarily share her perspective on death, we are sometimes provoked to believe that death is in fact being deceptive and cunning, using his manners to lure her in to her eternal grave.