Because I could not stop for Death
by Emily Dickinson
“Death never comes at the right time, despite what mortals believe. Death always comes like a thief.”
―Christopher Pike, The Last Vampire
As described in the poem Death is a gentleman who waits patiently for everyone of his passengers to get on his carriage. It is also said that Death takes you on a sort of flashback to your life before everything else ended. Death can be symbolized by a lot of things faith, fear, hope, love and etc. Death in itself is not just about losing someone it can also mean losing something.
1862, 2nd year of American Civil War a time 3 million men fought in the war where at least 2% of the population—more than 620,000—died. The poem is about the Civil War and how it affected everyone around it. People could not stop the war from happening so all they had to do was follow the rules blindly kind of like “death”, you're not really sure what is going to happen but you still jump with both feet in the air.
The speaker is a woman who is at the point in her life that she has encountered death but try as she might not to come into the light, she accepts the fact that she is already at death's door. I believe the speaker is coherent in her point of view because throughout the poem she is rather calm about everything happening in her life. The woman in the poem is currently sick in her death bed and for her comfort she is trying to create in her head how her flashback would happen. She imagined it to be full of people that she is familiar with, her childhood, her teen years and her adult life. This woman actually believes in the afterlife that along with it comes immortality and eternal peace.
“We passed the School, where Children strove
At Recess – in the Ring –
We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain –
We passed the Setting Sun –”
The woman is telling her story from the beginning where she was a child at school, then when she was middle aged and then her final stage in life. This gives us a picture of her life when it all started. She is reminiscing on the time when she was young and innocent when nothing else mattered but the number of toys you had or the times when you had nothing else to do but play.
“Because I could not stop for Death-
He kindly stopped for me”
The irony in this passage is that death waits for no one. It never comes when you expect it to come. It would come to us like a thief in a night silent and deadly. This line is also a reassurance that when death arrived it was not unpleasant. Death was portrayed as an acquaintance or a lover due to him being civil.
“We paused before a House that seemed”
The metaphor is using the House as a final resting place or a grave. As time passed, she was ready to come to terms with the fact that she can no longer hold on for dear life. She needed to let go and be rid of her suffering.
“We slowly drove – He knew no haste”
This is the allusion because Death is not a person who is patient and kind. He can be a number of things but he is never the type to stop and smell the roses every now and then but is he really that cruel or is he just portrayed that way. Death has always been a sketchy topic for most because of it being unpredictable, nobody really knows what happens when you die, nobody really knows what to expect but they usually expect that death is not a pleasant experience.
The tone of the poem is just like love, the first is when you meet, the second when you date, the third where you share your life together, the fourth is when you get married which usually includes kids, house, etc. I would say it is love because of the stages this poem has taken me. It started as a slow conversation then progressed into something you know you will love and understand in the end. Let us not forget that confusing stages in between but that’s what love is. It goes up, down and vice versa.
The tone of the poem changes drastically with every change in the stanzas. At first she was unsure of what to expect when riding with death and immortality, then she accepts the fact that she cannot do anything about it so she starts enjoying the ride, then comes the flashback of the life that she was living, then when she reaches her final resting place. The poem takes you from the beginning of life to the end of life. It takes you to self-discovery, it shows you love, hope, acceptance and fear.
“Since then – 'tis Centuries – and yet
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses' Heads
Were toward Eternity – ”
The woman is at the end of her long and tiring journey towards her eternity. She resigned herself to the fact that nothing lasts forever and everything ends on its own accord. Life is not counted by the number of times you succeed and failed it is usually counted by the lessons you learned along the way. Whatever happens in your life has its purpose and meaning, God never asks anything of you if he knows you cant provide. Heaven's doors are always open, you just have to provide the right keys to enter the kingdom and have eternal life.
