Emily Dickinson spend an excessive amount of time secluded and isolated in her bedroom. Notably, her bedroom window overlooked a cemetery, therefore, Dickinson was a constant watcher of death. Reflecting in her poems is her exposure to death and the recurring theme of death and demise. As she was exposed to graveyards, tombs, and death since a child, an effect was bound to take place and it is illustrated in her poetry. Dickinson observed the omnipresent death, pain, and suffering, and incorporated these elements with God, angels, heaven, and spirituality. With death a constant exhibition in her childhood, Dickinson was susceptible to the effects of mortality, and illustrated her feelings in her poetry. Notorious for her seclusion, the intense
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(Dickinson 1-4)
Death, not an ominous figure but a gentle one, is personified as a man in Emily Dickinson's poem “Because I could not stop for Death.” A courteous figure, he stops his carriage for the narrator, and offers the narrator a ride with him and ‘immortality” (Dickinson 4). “We slowly drove – He knew no haste” (Dickinson 5). Death is now personified as “knowing no haste” and a kind companion for the narrator. “And I had put away/My labor and my leisure too,/For His Civility –” (Dickinson 6-8). Moreover, Death is illustrated as a polite character, and alludes courtesy.
We paused before a House that seemed A Swelling of the Ground – The Roof was scarcely visible – The Cornice – in the Ground – (Dickinson 17-20)
Finally, the considerate and gentlemanly Death brings the narrator ‘home,’ or rather, the narrator dies. Personifying death as a man was done exceptionally well by Dickinson. Uniquely, she portrays death as a benevolent philanthropic, contrary to the wonted illustration of death as a menacing evil. Fear of death is not provoked in the narrator nor the reader, as the reader is warm towards death. Furthermore, the personification of death as a man adds depth to the poem and raises questions if Dickinson herself was as welcoming of death as the narrator
(Dickinson 1-4)
Death, not an ominous figure but a gentle one, is personified as a man in Emily Dickinson's poem “Because I could not stop for Death.” A courteous figure, he stops his carriage for the narrator, and offers the narrator a ride with him and ‘immortality” (Dickinson 4). “We slowly drove – He knew no haste” (Dickinson 5). Death is now personified as “knowing no haste” and a kind companion for the narrator. “And I had put away/My labor and my leisure too,/For His Civility –” (Dickinson 6-8). Moreover, Death is illustrated as a polite character, and alludes courtesy.
We paused before a House that seemed A Swelling of the Ground – The Roof was scarcely visible – The Cornice – in the Ground – (Dickinson 17-20)
Finally, the considerate and gentlemanly Death brings the narrator ‘home,’ or rather, the narrator dies. Personifying death as a man was done exceptionally well by Dickinson. Uniquely, she portrays death as a benevolent philanthropic, contrary to the wonted illustration of death as a menacing evil. Fear of death is not provoked in the narrator nor the reader, as the reader is warm towards death. Furthermore, the personification of death as a man adds depth to the poem and raises questions if Dickinson herself was as welcoming of death as the narrator