Emily Dickinson's Collected Poems
comment closely on the following poem,considering hos its language and structure help present the journey with death
Because I could not stop for Death BY EMILY DICKINSON
Because I could not stop for Death BY EMILY DICKINSON
In this poem Dickinson personifies Death as a polite but persistent gentleman, who escorts his charge gently to her final destination.
The journey is dignified and civilised as we are told in the second stanza-
We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility.
The gentle rhyme suggests a calm and respectful process, and Death is seen as a polite chaperone assisting a lady in to the next world. It is a far less intimidating image than the grim reaper that Death is often personified as.
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/stop.html