Because
I could not Stop for Death by Emily Dickinson
This poem is a comparison between
Death and Marriage. The poetess visualizes Death as a gentleman who takes her
in a carriage, as a bridegroom leads a bride for the wedding. Death, as a
gentleman, is very courteous and kind.
They have a chaperon namely “Immortality.”
The journey is a pleasant drive towards eternity, and Death shows no haste. In
fact, he is very polite, and the poetess has put away her leisure and her work
just to please him and give him company.
The carriage passes the school where
children play games during break. Then they view the fields of ‘gazing grain.’
Lastly, they see the setting sun. Perhaps these scenes may symbolize various
stages of one’s life, childhood, youth, and old age. Suddenly, the speaker is
conscious of the thinness of her net-like dress, and the terrible cold. In
fact, she is shivering in the cold, when the carriage stops before a house
which seems like the swelling of the ground. The roof of the house is not
visible. Most probably, the house is her grave.
Centuries may have passed since that
time, but each century appears to be shorter than a day. The poetess still
remembers the heads of the horses that carried her, that they were towards
eternity. Like Emily Dickinson’s other poems, this poem also, though short and simple,
is very rich in thought content and imagery. Emily does not seem to think
highly of marriage as others. In
drawing a parallel between marriage and death, perhaps she communicates her
belief that a woman dies, once she is married.
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