Emily Dickinson's Because I Could Not Stop For Death

As a recluse, Emily Dickinson probably had a lot of time to think about concepts like death, loss, and failure, as well as more happy subjects such as gain, life, and poetry. Several of her poems are dedicated to this contrast of death and life; namely, “Because I could not stop for Death.” Several themes are carried throughout this poem, exploring various different concepts of life, and the resulting Death. Starting with Dickinson climbing into a carriage with Death and Immortality, they slowly roll through an English countryside, while she watches life flow past. Finally, she notices the direction they are headed, and puts on solid resolve to face it. She uses Death as a foil to life, despite death being the main character, because she acknowledges that life is the unending part of existence, not death.

Firstly, the main concept and the title of the poem is Death’s inevitable progress towards us. Dickinson focuses on the idea of Death deciding the time and place of our death, “because I could not stop for [it]” (1). However, the emphasis also ties in with life, in that she has to pass through it to reach the inevitable death. Death seems, to her, to be simply a journey, although she does not mention an end. She does, however, mention eternity, but even then as a journey, in that she will travel with Death during that time. Dickinson’s

As the carriage passes through the world, she looks out the window and sees children playing, flowers growing, and life continuing on without her. She speculates calmly, with no rush, or any evidence of how she expects to die soon. As the life flows past her, she sees houses, schools, and fields of grain. With clear detail, she depicts growing life, accompanied by children, laughter, and playing. Glaringly absent, however, war, death, and other crueler parts of life are left out of her reverie, as if she is choosing what to see and more death is not her