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Symbolism In Emily Dickinson's Because I Could Not Stop For Death

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In “Because I Could Not Stop For Death”, Emily Dickinson uses imagery and symbols to establish the cycle of life and uses examples to establish the inevitability of death. This poem describes the speaker’s journey to the afterlife with death. Dickinson uses distinct images, such as a sunset, the horses’ heads, and the carriage ride to establish the cycle of life after death. Dickinson artfully uses symbols such as a child, a field of grain, and a sunset to establish the cycle of life and its different stages. Dickinson utilizes the example of the busyness of the speaker and the death of the sun to establish the inevitability of death. Dickinson uses the image of a sunset, the horses’ heads, and the carriage ride to establish …show more content…

Dickinson uses the symbol of children playing at recess to symbolize her childhood, the second stage in the cycle of life after birth. This symbol is used to portray the youth and innocence in the speaker’s first stage of the cycle of life. “We passed the school, where children strove/At recess, in the ring;” (9-10) A child is a sign of youth, innocence, and purity. Dickinson uses the speaker’s description a child to represent a time in the speaker’s life when she was experiencing her childhood. Dickinson uses the symbol a field of gazing grain to represent her adulthood and maturity, the third stage of the cycle of life. A field of gazing grain is ripe for harvesting. Dickinson uses this symbol to represent the time in the speaker’s life when she was aging and was ripe for death. Dickinson uses the symbol of the setting sun to establish the fourth stage of the cycle of life, death. “We passed the setting sun./Or rather, he passed us;” (12-13) The sun itself experiences the cycle of life and death every day. The sun is born at sunrise and dies at sunset. Dickinson uses the symbol of the setting sun to symbolize the time in the speaker’s life when she was nearing death and her eventual death. Dickinson uses the symbol of the carriage to represent the speaker’s experience of the final stage of the cycle of life, the transition from death to afterlife. The carriage is representing a …show more content…

Dickinson uses imagery of the setting sun, the horses’ heads, and the carriage ride to establish the cycle of life after death. Dickinson uses the symbols of the children playing, the sunset, the fields of grain, and the carriage to establish the natural cycle of life, from birth to youth to maturity to death. Dickinson uses the examples of the setting sun and death’s kindness to establish the inevitability of death. Through the use of various literary devices, Emily Dickinson establishes the cycle of life and the definiteness of

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Throughout the poem, Dickinson describes Death as a male that keeps coming for her while she is trying to escape him. In the first two lines, she uses personification, giving Death human characteristics. “Because I could not stop for death, He kindly stopped for me,” emphasizing death as a male and how he has stopped for her at this point. In lines 9-12, Dickinson uses imagery to create a picture for the reader to emphasize what she and Death are witnessing as they are passing through the area. Imagery is used throughout the poem to illustrate what she is seeing such as children at recess and passing the Fields of Gazing Grain and watching the Sun Set as they take a walk.

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Whitman and Dickinson share the theme of death in their work, while Whitman decides to speak of death in a more realistic point of view, Dickinson speaks of the theme in a more conceptual one. In Whitman’s poems, he likes to have a more empathic view of individuals and their ways of living. For example, in Whitman’s “Song of Myself”, the poet talks about not just of himself, but all human beings, and of how mankind works into the world and the life of it. Even though the poem mostly talks about life and the happiness of it, Whitman describes also that life itself has its ending, and that is the theme of death. For Dickinson, she is the complete opposite of happiness.

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To Dickinson, darkness seems to represent the unknown. The focus of this poem is people trying to find their way in the dark, where nothing can be foreseen. Sight is a prevalent theme in Untitled, achieved through words like

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Death is an unknown, no one has ever died and come back to tell the tale, instead people have to imagine and come up with what they think it will be like. The poets, Emily Dickinson and William Cullen Bryant, both had very different perspectives when it came to writing about death. In Bryant’s “Thanatopsis”, the speaker emphasizes that one joins nature and should not be afraid because they will be with everyone else as equals when they die. This is different from Dickinson’s poem, “Because I could not stop for Death”, where the speaker takes a ride in a carriage with death for eternity. Whether or not these authors believed that their poems were actual representations of what happens when one dies, the poems both describe unique ideas of what

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“Success is counted sweetest by those who never succeed.” This statement by Emily Dickinson expresses that you will never truly understand the meaning of success unless you have undergone failure. Emily Dickinson faced adversity throughout her fifty-five years of living as she experiences several losses. Because of this, the main theme in her poems is death as they are filled with constant bereavement however the themes of love, religion and nature are also present.

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She grew up in a religious home, learning about Christian morality and theology. This specific poem reflects her spiritual background,creating a deeper meaning to the words she chose to emphasize. Ralph Marcellino explains that “the word ‘immortality’ is often….practically synonymous with, or a euphemism for, ‘death’ (102). Dickinson’s definition of immortality alternatively had various meanings, the most likely one being the explanation of eternal life for the body and soul. Within her poem, she follows two main Christian concepts: at death the soul travels to heaven, and the soul is

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When Dickinson was young she thought of death as a kind, peaceful gentleman. She elaborates on this idea in her poem “Because I could not Stop for Death”, “Because I could not stop for Death/ He kindly stopped for me/ We slowly drove - He knew no haste,” Emily Dickinson uses the personification of Death in a way that bears resemblance to a classy, peaceful gentleman who is willing to slowly guide and patiently wait for a lady. Her wording also gives the connotation that she is young and in love with this gentle Death. This idea abruptly turns into hatred when she loses her parents.

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In “Because I could not stop for Death” Dickinson views death as a kind person, “He kindly stopped for me” (752). He stops to pick up a woman that is to busy in life the notice that he is there. He takes her on a carriage ride from life to afterlife. Since death is so kind to stop for her she stops doing the things that make her so busy so they can enjoy the ride. As they pass children at play, fields and the setting sun it then becomes a sinister scene.

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In the poem “Because I could not stop for death” by Emily Dickinson, death is described as a person, and the narrator is communicating her journey with death in the afterlife. During the journey the speaker describes death as a person to accompany her during this journey. Using symbolism to show three locations that are important part of our lives. The speaker also uses imagery to show why death isn 't’ so scary.

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The poem that stood out the most while reading this assortment of Emily Dickinson poems, was her poem numbered 656/520. This poem used imagery in numerous ways throughout in order to show the audience the important themes and the overall meaning of this work of literature. The poem’s main theme was about a walk on the beach that the poet encountered in the early morning. Although the poem is about a beach it can also give the audience contextual clues into other aspects of life.

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The speaker seems completely at ease with the Death as they move along at a relaxed pace. In the third stanza, the reader sees reminders of the world that the speaker is passing through, with children playing, fields of grain, and the sun setting. However, the speakers place in the world shifts between the third stanza and the next. Dickinson states, “We passed the Setting Sun- (12)”, but at the beginning of the fourth stanza, the speaker corrects this by stating, “Or rather – / He passed us – (13) ” because she has died. In the rest of the

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932 Words | 4 Pages

In Dickinson’s poem, death is not as terrifying as it is believed to be by most people. She sees death as a beautiful thing, a new chapter, rather than the last chapter. In contrast, Donne personifies death as a bully who turns out not to be so tough. Death is often thought of as dark and frightening, but Dickinson describes death as a journey, and not just a single event that concludes a life.

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The first stage is symbolized, obviously, by the children themselves at the school; the second stage is pictured as a harvest, as life ripens towards full maturity; and finally, there is the reference to the setting sun, which represents the closing of life. The speaker passes all three stages of life to her final stopping-point: the grave. Emily Dickinson’s view on death as a personified courteous suitor and Seamus Heaney’s view on death as a terrible bitter experience are both understandable as a reader. I assume both poets are influenced by personal experience, however I prefer Heaney’s vision, because it is realistic and can be empathized with as a

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The Transformation that Changes our Lives The poet Emily Dickinson in her poem, I Felt a Funeral in my Brain that is the first line of the poem, not a special title that Dickinson chose. It tells about the story of the experience of the speaker in the poem who is transforming from place to another. Many readers would take this poem as an explanation of what happens after death, what the dead body feels in the funeral.

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Allen Curnow’s ‘Time’ and Emily Dickinson’s ‘Because I Could Not Stop For Death’ show the similar themes of the passing of time and its implications. The two poems both discuss events that occur throughout an average life (childhood, work, marriage and death are some examples), however, there is a stark contrast between the finality of ‘Because I Could Not Stop For Death’ and the mundaneness of ‘Time’. The poem ‘Time’ is a tribute to the passing of time and how much humans have grown to obsess over it. The poem is an extended metaphor, using the repetition of “I am” to instigate that the voice is Time itself.

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