Emily Dickinson's Because I Could Not Stop For Death

Many writers use different aspects of literature to suggest certain themes or their interpretations of concepts in their works; Emily Dickinson, a posthumous poet in the 1800s, is no different. Following her death in 1886, the hundreds of poems that she wrote were edited and published by her sister; with no direct interpretations from Dickinson herself, her readers were left to decipher the subtle ideas that she incorporated in her poems. One of the many poems that Dickinson had written was “Because I could not stop for Death”, in which the main character (whom we can assume is a female according to Dickinson’s word choice of “[g]own” and “[g]ossamer”) of the poem encounters a personified Death, with whom she completes her journey to her own

First, Dickinson uses an extended metaphor in which she personifies Death to create an image of what the experience of death is like. Death is a common theme in literature, as well as the real world, and is typically portrayed as a very dark and intimidating concept. However, Dickinson introduces this concept of death in a unique manner by using an extended metaphor to compare the main character’s journey towards her death to a friendship. Death’s character is introduced in the first stanza, and the ‘friendship’ between the two characters begins to blossom. “Because [the main character] could not stop for Death”, one can tell that she is busy, and not ready for Death at the moment (1). This reveals that Dickinson interprets death to be unexpected and random - just like many new friendships; the author also portrays Death as a friendly character when she states that “he kindly stopped for [her]” (1,2). He clearly makes a proper first impression on the main character, and this is the first stage of their ‘friendship’. As Dickinson progresses in the poem, so does the friendship between Death

In other poetry, the authors often use the grammatical aspects of their poem to hint at their more subtle themes. Similarly, Dickinson uses these aspects in her own poem to signify the experience and feelings that are associated with death. Despite the positive connotations of Dickinson’s word choice in the beginning of the poem, the capitalization of certain words in the second half of the poem put emphasis on certain phrases that show the consequences of death. One example of this in the poem is when Dickinson capitalizes “Gossamer” and “Gown” to put emphasis on the fact that the main character is wearing nothing but a thin gown and is probably “quivering” in the “chill[y]” weather (14, 15). By this, the author is showing the audience that there is an unfavorable aftermath to death. Dickinson additionally expresses in her poem an idea regarding the events that follow the journey to one’s death. At the end of the main character’s journey, the author explains that they stopped in front of a house, and the main character noticed “A swelling in the Ground” (18); Dickinson’s capitalization of the word “Ground” causes her audience to stop and consider why she may have capitalized it. With this line in her poem, Dickinson is trying to express that what the main character had witnessed was their grave; the