Because I Could Not Stop For Death Meaning

Sasha Kruhlyakov

Mrs. Leger

English 175

March 13, 2018

Death-Symbol of Morality

Poetry is an art of form, of feelings, and emotions through words. It envelopes the writer’s mood and view about certain ideas in their poem. One poem that demonstrates the use of emotions in words with a big impact to it is “Because I could not stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson. Her meaning of the word “death” changes throughout her poem and has deeper meaning than just what we generally think of it. Most of this author’s poems are very important in the literary field, even though some of her writings are about death. However, no matter how you look at it, her poems are great works of art that captivate the heart of the readers leaving them with the sense

According to dictionary.com, “death is the act of dying; the end of life; the total and permanent cessation of the all the vital functions of an organism.” That’s the plain thinking or what you would call general idea of what the description or meaning of the word “death” is. In the poem “Because I Could not stop for Death,” we see how the speaker is communicating from beyond what we think about “death”. “Because I could not stop for Death – He kindly stopped for me-“ (1-2). In here, we can see that the speaker personifies death as from life to after life, where as in general you would think that the speaker is talking about death as the end of the life or act of dying. “Death” meaningfully described as something with kindness. The poet describes the word “death” as something to look forward to, something that will open the door to a new life. Whereas, normally when you would think about death, you might think about fear, dread, pain and something that you do not want to be associated

It just all comes to how you use them. Everything has its own history. Words are no exception. Just like the human body can grow, the same thing happens with words. Throughout time, spelling of words change, so as their meanings. The word “death” means act of dying, however, in a hundred years, the meaning of this word might change. After two hundred years, the spelling might change too. Or it could just be used as a slang for something. You never know, anything could happen. If you look at etymonline or dictionary.com, you can check how words have changed throughout periods of time. Nothings stays the same. Everything can change. It’s just a matter of