Emily Dickinson's Because I Could Not Stop For Death

418 Words1 Page

Life is said to be a long, winding road that goes on forever and continues on even after death. Emily Dickinson’s poem “Because I could not stop for Death” revolves around that idea of life being a continuous journey into death. The poem encompasses the illusion of a person on their deathbed. The person, being the narrator, has been too busy living their live. This has led them to avoid death. Because of this avoidance, Death has caught up to them. In Dickinson’s poem, this slow descend into death is expressed through the length of the carriage ride.

“Because I could not stop for Death” is full of symbolism that helps to express the meaning. First, the road of which the carriage travels on represents life. This road is the course of the narrator’s life as they unknowingly cross into death. Next is the school with the children. The school represents the knowledge that the narrator picked up in their life. As for the children, they represent the innocence that the narrator carried with them, but also liveliness. The children hold onto the last bit of life, which slowly dissipates as the day grows into night. When night falls, it becomes cold. This chill in the air gives reference to the decrease in temperature of a corpse. Near the …show more content…

Now, Death and Immortality are at two opposing ends of the spectrum, right? Because immortality means living on forever and death is pretty much the end of the line; however, that is not the case. Death and Immortality go hand in hand, especially because the carriage is headed towards eternity. Death is the idea of being immortalized for all eternity. As the narrator travels down the road, they come to realize that the carriage has been on the road for a long time. The lines “Since then—‘tis Centuries—and yet / Feels shorter than the Day,” represent this and how centuries will continue to pass because eternity is an unreachable distance

Open Document