What Is The Meaning Of The Poem Because I Could Not Stop For Death

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Going through the motions of life can tend to feel like an endless roller coaster that does not end until death embarks upon us. In Emily Dickson’s poem “Because I could not stop for death,” the cloud of doom can strike too soon, but demonstrates not to have a fear of being deceased. Death escorted the woman in a carriage like a kind suitor and accompanied death by immortality, but then the final destination of her ride is for eternity. The most significant moments of the woman’s life surrounded her mind in these last moments of breath as lifelike images that reminded her of happiness. When dusk hits, like the last step before death, she was stricken with a chill and is content with what lies ahead. It was soon revealed that the flash of death …show more content…
Perfect rhymes only exist in a few lines throughout the poem and first example was, “He kindly stopped for me –/ The Carriage held but just Ourselves/ –And Immortality” (2-4). Purposely end rhyme was not mentioned again until the repetition of ground, although this occurred to draw attention to the connection of immortality being more than just a hole in the ground for example, “A Swelling of the Ground –/The Roof was scarcely visible –/The Cornice – in the Ground-” (18-20). This rhyme scheme shows how the essence of the poem does not have to rhyme because it is unpredictable just like the process of death. The third stanza has no end rhyme, “At Recess – in the Ring –/We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain –/We passed the Setting Sun – ” (10-12). Ring does not rhyme with sun in this stanza, but it does internally rhyme with setting. A rhythmic pattern does not exist in this stanza, to draw attention to the motions of life. The bell ringing represents the idea of the beginning of life and the sun setting is exhibited as the ending of life. There is also a slant rhyme, “The Dews drew quivering and Chill –/ For only Gossamer, my Gown –/My Tippet – only Tulle-” (14-16). The words chill and tulle sound somewhat the same, but do not rhyme. This slant rhyme is used to draw attention to the exact moment where the woman has her first internal fear of death, but quickly gets over the initial …show more content…
When the woman was too busy with her daily demands to make time for anything else, he always made time to wait for her. In the second stanza, death is described as civility while like the rest of the world the woman was focused on the lavished things like money and power. This is ironic because death is usually portrayed as such a dreadful event, but instead in this poem it is expressed as almost like a suitable man. When Dickson begins to talk about stopping at a house, it vividly paints an image of the woman being dropped off at her house after a date. Then soon the house is actually the grave being described as a house with the roof being visible, which can be taken as foreshadowing an actual house or the top of a coffin. Comparing death to a house tries to add a sense of humor to the tone of the poem in the scene at the graveyard. When death is portrayed as a suitor it is almost as if death is an angel of God. This God sent death seems to almost do a favor for people by taking them on an adventure to the everlasting afterlife and demonstrating that death is not something to be

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