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What is the symbolism in because i could not stop for death
What is the symbolism in because i could not stop for death
What is the symbolism in because i could not stop for death
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Read over "Because I Could Not Stop for Death" by Emily Dickinson.
1. List as many examples of metaphors and similes as possible.
The carriage, in stanza 1, is a metaphor for a hearse.
When they “passed the setting sun” (12) it implies that she has finally died.
When they “paused before a house that seemed / A swelling of the ground” (17-18), the word house is a metaphor for grave.
2. Explain the personification.
In Emily Dickinson's poem, “Because I Could Not Stop for Death”, death is personified in an unusual way. Instead of the expected dark, evil, Grim-reaper depiction of death, Dickinson portrayed him as more of a gentleman. Death became a character, able to carry out a human action, who “kindly stopped” (2) for the speaker, since she could not stop for him. He's described as a man who “knew no haste” (5), a courteous fellow. Another example of personification is when we discover that Immortality has decided to tag along for the carriage ride, as Death and Immortality seemingly go hand in hand. Lastly, Dickinson utilized personification, when she wrote, “We passed the setting sun. / Or rather, he passed us” (12-13). The sun is called a he instead of an it, and is reported as being able to pass the speaker and Death. Dickinson's use of this literary device, especially the personification of death, leads the reader to take a different approach in the way they think about the afterlife: a calmer, more accepting view of one's passing to whatever lies beyond the grave.
3. Choose two symbols in the poem and explain them as thoroughly as possible.
1. In stanza two, the speaker told how she and Death “paused before a house that seemed / A swelling of the ground” (17-18). The first thought that crossed my mind: Hey, it's a H...
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...h picks up the speaker in a horse drawn carriage “And Immortality” (4) joins them. The poet is implying that with death comes immorality, just not of the sort that one reads about in Twilight novels. Indeed, Dickinson is not referring to temporal perpetuity, but a spiritual eternity. Besides that, earthly pleasures and acts appear to have lost their appeals for the speaker. When she tells of how they “passed the school, where children strove / At recess, in the ring”, notice how the word strove is used in place of the word play, indicating that life is a struggle. Death “kindly stopped for [her]” (2), and she though him very civil for doing so. The last intriguing aspect to this poem is the way Dickinson wrote it so that it included no allusions to anything specifically religious, any reader, no matter their beliefs, could in someway relate to the theme of the poem.
The house was full of dead bodies, it seemed. It felt like a mechanical cemetery. So silent. None of the humming hidden energy of machines waiting to function at the tap of a
... in that barren hall with its naked stair... rising into the dim upper hallway where an echo spoke which was not mine ut rather that of the lost irrevocable might-have-been which haunts all houses, all enclosed walls erected by human hands, not for shelter, not for warmth, but to hide from the world's curious looking and seeing the dark turnings which the ancient young delusions of pride and hope and ambition (ay, and love too) take.
Looking through the eyes of the current resident living in the hanted house, a ghostly couple rambles through what once was theirs looking for their “treasure”. Searching feverishly for the missing piece that would cure their restlesness, it seems as though they cannot grasp what they’ve lost. At the conclusion of the short story, the previous inhabitants find their desired treasure in the love between the living couple. This was the treasure the past couple had forgotten - true love. Wolf’s diction establishes the relationship between the couples and the house. Incorporating the word “beat” into her work while describing the house, Virginia coorelates the house to a heart, where love resides. Next, alliteration is used to romanticize the hunt for this hidden object. While the old couple attempts to remember where they left it, they reaize that it is “So fine, so rare, coolly sunk beneath the surface the beam I sought always burnt behind the glass” (Wolf 1). The S sound exemplifies the poetic nature of this story, something that is constanly used to portray the emotion of love.
“It was His own, it was not mine, Far be it that I should repine; He might of all justly bereft But yet sufficient for us left.” In the scene after she walks by the place that was once her home she remembers the things she once owned. She expresses her memories with the place that was once her home. “My pleasant things in ashes lie, And them behold no more shall I. Under thy roof no guest shall sit, Nor at thy table eat a bit.” Even though the poet is sad when she sees that all her memories from that house might be gone she realizes that better is coming. She talks about how there is a better home built by God waiting for her in heaven. “Thou hast an house on high erect, Framed by that mighty Architect, With glory richly furnished, Stands permanent though this be fled. It’s purchased and paid for too By Him who hath enough to do.” These few lines show how there is a better house in her future that is made by God, she talks about how it is paid for and is framed by a mighty architect and is nicely
Dickinson 's poem uses poetic devices of personification to represent death, she represents death as if it were a living being. Dickinson 's capitalization of the word “DEATH”, causes us to see death as a name, in turn it becomes noun, a person, and a being, rather than what it truly is, which is the culminating even of human life. The most notable use of this, is seen in the very first few lines of the poem when Dickinson says “Because I could not stop for Death, He kindly stopped for me”. In her poem Dickinson makes death her companion, as it is the person who is accompanying her to her grave. She states that death kindly stopped for her and she even goes as far as to give death the human ability to stop and pick her up. The occasion of death through Dickinson use of personification makes it seem like an interaction between two living beings and as a result the poem takes on a thoughtful and light hearted tone. The humanization of death makes the experience more acceptable and less strange, death takes on a known, familiar, recognizable form which in turn makes the experience more relatable. As the poem
There is probably no one, among people, who has not considered death as a subject to think about or the events, people, and spirits that they would face after death. Also, since we were little kids, we were asking our parents what death is and what is going to happen after we die. People have always linked death with fear, darkness, depression, and other negative feelings, but not with Emily Dickinson, a reclusive poet from Massachusetts who was obsessed with death and dying in her tons of writings. She writes “Because I could not stop for Death” and in this particular poem she delivers a really different idea of death and the life after death. In the purpose of doing that, the speaker encounters death, which was personalized to be in the form of a gentleman suitor who comes to pick her up with his horse-drawn carriage for a unique death date that will last forever.
When Death stops for the speaker, he reins a horse-drawn carriage as they ride to her grave. This carriage symbolizes a hearse of which carries her coffin to her grave a day or two after her death. As they ride, they pass, “the School… / the Fields of Gazing Grain— / [and] the Setting Sun—” (lines 9-12). These three symbolize the speakers life, from childhood in the playgrounds, to labor in the fields, and finally to the setting sun of her life. When the speaker and Death arrive at the house, it is night.
Death is a controversial and sensitive subject. When discussing death, several questions come to mind about what happens in our afterlife, such as: where do you go and what do you see? Emily Dickinson is a poet who explores her curiosity of death and the afterlife through her creative writing ability. She displays different views on death by writing two contrasting poems: one of a softer side and another of a more ridged and scary side. When looking at dissimilar observations of death it can be seen how private and special it is; it is also understood that death is inevitable so coping with it can be taken in different ways. Emily Dickinson’s poems “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” and “I Heard A Fly Buzz When I Died” show both parallel and opposing views on death.
Emily Dickinson is one of the numerous poets who uses death as the subject of several of her poems. In her poem "Because I Could Not Stop for Death," Death is portrayed as a gentleman who comes to give the speaker. a ride to eternity. Throughout the poem, Dickinson develops her unusual. interpretation of death and, by doing so, composes a poem full of imagery that is both unique and thought provoking.
Dickinson doesn’t have the speaker complain about dying and be trying to avoid it instead she is calm and just riding along with death. She sort of goes on a date with him and is driving around taking their time to get wherever they need to go. When you get to the end you realize that she is already dead, and that’s why she wasn’t fighting it, because she was already there. The speaker had come to terms with what had happened and was reliving the moment when it happened. As one would expect, dealing with death, it was darker than her poem about hope. This poem was really able to capture emotion of death and portray it in an easy way to
Imagery is a big component to most works of poetry. Authors strive to achieve a certain image for the reader to paint in their mind. Dickinson tries to paint a picture of ?death? in her own words. Thomas A. Johnson, an interpretive author of Dickinson's work, says that ?In 1863 Death came into full statue as a person. ?Because I could not stop for Death? is a superlative achievement wherein Death becomes one of the greatest characters of literature? (Johnson). Dickinson's picture to the audience is created by making ?Death? an actual character in the poem. By her constantly calling death either ?his? or ?he,? she denotes a specific person and gender. Dickinson also compares ?Death? to having the same human qualities as the other character in the poem. She has ?Death? physically arriving and taking the other character in the carriage with him. In the poem, Dickinson shows the reader her interpretation of what this person is going through as they are dying and being taken away by ?Death?. Dickinson gives images such as ?The Dews drew quivering and chill --? and ?A Swelling of the Ground --? (14, 18). In both of these lines, Dickinson has the reader conjure up subtle images of death. The ?quivering an chill? brings to the reader's mind of death being ...
Life and death are but trails to eternity and are seen less important when viewed in the framework of eternity. Emily Dickinson’s poem Death is a gentleman taking a woman out for a drive.” Because I could not stop for death, He kindly stopped for me” (Dickinson 1-2). Emily describes being a busy woman who is caught up with everyday situations. When it comes to death, no one plans on a time or date to die; what Emily is identifying as a tragic event is translated to being a casual experience. Emily writes, “The carriage held but just ourselves, and immortality,” (3-4). Emily describes her ride with death, but affiliates a third rider Immortality. “Davidson does not emphasize what is gained after death; she emphasizes what is lost because of death,” (Privatsky 35). Emily’s third passenger has a wide variety of interpretations. Normally, one doesn’t think about death, yet Emily’s approach to death is similar of the approach to immortality. My viewpoint is Emily construes her belief in a soul that does not die but live on till eternity. “The idea of immortality is confronted with the fact of physical disintegration. We are not told what to think; we are told to look at the situation,” (Tate 26). According to Dickinson’s words, He slowly drove He knew no haste (5-6). Emily describes a relaxing slow pace towards an unknown destination. On the way she enjoys the peaceful scenes. “We passed the school, where children strove, At recess – In the Ring-“(Dickinson 9-10). Emily is reflecting in her past, this may also be seen as the beginning of a life cycle. Emily then goes on to say, We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain- (11). The phrase that she decides to use is judicious because she is not the observer, but instead she is the observed. At that point, she further goes on to describe “Setting Sun-“ as the last scene in her ride.” All three of these images suggest phases of the life cycle that the speaker has passed and is passing through and clue us in on her experience…Time has stopped for her, and the fields of grain do the gazing, not her,” (Semansky 34-35).
Frost’s poem leaves the reader enlightened on the speaker’s outlook on death. “Ghost House” is an evolution through both the reader’s mood and the speaker’s tone surrounding death. Frost accomplishes this in his signature style and voice with clever word choice, from the morbid beginning to the accepting and almost willing end.
She stood forlornly; her hope was depleted, dead as the sunset. The formerly crystal-clear windows were now shattered into pieces, while the remaining ones were caked in grime. Sections of the house had collapsed, and the stale air, thick with dust, seeped through the cracks. A layer of dust covered every inch of the deserted building; cobwebs enclosed every corner and billowed in the draft. Thick curtains stubbornly remained in its’ habitat, though the sun no longer shone through the windows, the only thing it let in were the sinister chills of the night.
For Dickinson, on the contrary, death is not something unreal. As the author has written "Because I could not stop for Death, he kindly stopped for me..." After reading these two lines the reader "imagines the picture of Death being a human which joins the author during the ride" . Dickinson tries to portray the characteristics of death in the poem. Stating that there is eternity after death, the author alludes both the possibility of the life after death and absolute zero-ness of it. Unlike Plath, Dickinson not only talks about the notion of death, but personalizes it. The reader feels that the author in fact...