Meaning Of Death In Poetry

Poems frequently use words that can have multiple different meanings to provide readers with various ways to understand the poem. When only looking at the basic definition of a word it does not allow the reader to completely grasp all of the ideas represented in the poem. In the poem “because I could not stop for death” by Emily Dickinson, the word death has numerous meanings that provide the readers with insight into the intended meaning of the poem itself. To thoroughly understand the use of the word death in the poem, readers need to have a greater understanding of the words basic meanings. An analysis of death in this poem reveals the journey of death is not a fearful one, but a gentle one into eternity. The simple meaning of death is the end of a life for a person or organism. Death is something everyone must face eventually because humans do not live forever. Most people experience a natural death at an older age. Although death is a natural occurrence that happens, sometimes other factors cause death like illness, accidents, and violence. There are a lot of emotions tied to death. Some people are afraid of dying and others feel that when it is there time to die, it is a time of celebration. When people think of death a lot of times people think of peace because death is associated with rest, therefore there will be no more suffering in …show more content…
In the first stanza, death is characterized as a person and has stopped to pick up the speaker in a carriage. “ the carriage held but just ourselves and immortality.” The speaker is dying but is not afraid of death as she thinks he is kind, taking her to the afterlife. The speaker believes that after death there is an afterlife where she will live eternally. Many believe immortality is real and is achieved after