FREE ESSAY ON DICKINSON'S POEM BECAUSE I COULD NOT STOP FOR DEATH

DICKINSON'S POEM BECAUSE I COULD NOT STOP FOR DEATH

Thantos, Charon, Death. No matter what we call it, the idea that is death is always with
us. It causes great pain, but also inspires. Dickinson's poem Because I Could Not Stop
for Death is, obviously enough, about death. But rather than being sad about it, she
wants the reader to view death as being an inevitable change, rather than an end to
existence. By personifying death, she makes it seem relaxing and serene. She also adds to
this effect by using vivid imagery and metaphors, as well as rhythm, to create a poem
that plays out in the reader's mind like a movie, due also in part to the dramatic
imagery. 
One of the major parts of this poem is the personification of death, a common theme in
her poetry. By making death human, it makes death understandable. In one of her other
poems, I Read My Sentence - Steadily-, she says She and Death, Acquainted-/ meet
Tranquilly as Friends. Her treatment of death as a friend makes it seem as if people are
silly for fearing death, but rather should accept, even embrace it as the natural course
all lives must take. She makes it clear that it is inescapable, and that we should not
try.
When she says, Because I could not stop for Death, it causes the reader to ask why she
could not stop. The obvious answer is that she could not stop because she was so wrapped
up in her own life, so busy, that she did not think about death. She shares the carriage
with Death and Immortality, two opposites, Death being the cessation of life, and
Immortality being perpetual life. This poses something of a conundrum, unless the reader
realizes that Death is there for the corporeal self, and Immortality is there for her
soul or spirit, which, according to many belief systems is eternal. She describes Death
as being peaceful and civil, relaxed and unhurried. This is established by his Civility
and He knew no haste. This fits with the popular conception of death. She makes a
significant omission in that she does not describe Death physically. This permits the
reader to use his or her imagination to form a physical depiction of Death.
In the third stanza, she describes the things they pass, all of which could be
interpreted as the three phases of life, or the three Grecian fates. The school, where
children strove/ At recess in the Ring represents the early part of life, childhood, or
Clothos, the fate who wove the threads of life. The next phase and Fate combination is
adulthood, represented by Laecheis, who measured the threads of life. The line, The
Fields of Gazing Grain, symbolizes this. Grain also symbolizes fertility, and since
adulthood is when people have children, this highlights the image. But there is the
promise, or perhaps threat, of things to come when the reader thinks of the popular image
of Death, holding a scythe, which was used to reap the grain, as it also reaps the lives
of those Death goes to claim. The setting sun is the end of life, old age, or Atropos,
who cut the threads of life. 
This phrase also serves as a transition to a much darker fourth stanza. Dickinson's
rhythm also changes from a regular beat to a shorter, darker feeling rhythm, which
changes back after this stanza. This combined with imagery such as Quivering, Chill, and
Gossamer, with a tippet made of tulle causes the reader to feel the cold stillness of the
tomb. The word Gossamer is a good choice, because the thin, almost translucent material
is suggestive of ghosts, flowing, transparent and cold. This image could also mean that
she feels the loss of those in her life who were dear to her, and the memories of those
who have passed before her.
The next stanza is an enigma. The house image could be many things, ranging from the
tombs the Romans built along their roads, to her deep-seated fear of her world forgetting
her. As Steven Butler, a well known author once said, To die completely, a person must
not only forget, but be forgotten, and he who is not forgotten is not dead.
The final stanza serves as closure to the poem. In it, the speaker realizes that there is
no escape from the carriage, just as there is no escape from death. Time ceases to have
any meaning. Like the carriage ride, death is forever, and once done, cannot be reversed
since The horses' heads were towards Eternity. There was also a horse in Grecian mythos
associated with death named Mortis, who carried Death to his various cases. The Greeks,
too, tried vainly to understand Death, but they had no more success than our society when
attempting to answer the ever-present question of Why.
In this search for answers and understanding, we are forever at a loss. The only way we
can possibly understand death, and what, if anything comes after that, is by dying. So we
seek solace in other things, be it religion or science, or just not thinking about it.
Yet everyone knows at some level that when that final door opens, all else will cease to
matter and Ave atque vale, a Latin phrase meaning Hail and farewell. And ashes to ashes,
dust-to-dust, and above all else, rest in peace. This is the message in Because I Could
Not Stop for Death. Dickinson at some level was trying to understand death, but in the
end, only she knew if she did.