Emily Dickinson's Because I Could Not Stop For Death

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Recommended: The theme of death in Emily Dickinson's poetry

Thomas Ernest Hulme was born on “September 16, 1883 and he died on September 28, 1917” (T. E. Hulme). Hulme was an English critic and poet who made a great impact on modernism through, his writings on art, literature and politics. (T. E. Hulme). Mr. Hulmes believed poetry had “concrete visuals” and that it created more beauty than prose (Hulmes, pg.64-65). In other words, word choice in poetry make visuals more real and relatable than prose. Hulmes thinks prose’s have no emotion or character within the words. I agree with Mr. Hulmes on how visual word choice makes poems and that prose isn’t lively. “Because I could not stop for Death” is an excellent reflection on Hulme’s points on how poetry is refreshing or attention grabbing. I will discuss how this poem relates to Mr. Hulmes argument. While I am taking a more formal approach, I will discuss the historical time the poem took place.
Emily Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for Death” was written in 1863 and published sometime after Dickinson’s death (Meyer, pge.814). Dickinson is one of the more popular authors in American history because of her unique style of poetry. In this poem, Dickinson’s narrator is describing a brief journey that she had taken with Death and Immortality, with her grave as the ending point. She used …show more content…

For example, death is seen as a kind man and is driving a carriage. Furthermore, Emily gave death a gender, when in reality it doesn’t exactly have one. In stanza 3, Dickinson says, “We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain” this involves personification and visual image. “Gazing Grain” gives the idea that the grain is looking or gazing off into space as humans do (Dickinson, pges.814- 815). In reality, it does appear that grain is gazing off at something as the wind moves them in a sequence. The symbolism in the poem was straight-forward, but a few lines held multiple

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