Because I Could Not Stop for Death

1. “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson (poem)
2. "Half a Day” by Naguib Mahfouz (short story)

These prompts can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before or after reading the paired texts.

Pre-reading Prompt:

1. Think about a time in your life (spanning anywhere from minutes to months) when time itself seemed to pass either very slowly or very quickly. What were you doing? What was going on around you? Why might you have felt that way about time’s passage? How does your experience relate to the discussion in this article of how psychology and time interact?

Post-reading Analysis:

1. The events of both “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” and “Half a Day” have a surreal quality. How would you describe the plot of each work? Do you think the writer intends for us to interpret the poem/story literally? Why or why not?

Answer each of the following questions with a response of one to several sentences. Use details from both texts to support your responses.

1. What is the narrator of each work doing as the story/poem opens? How do they feel about what they’re doing?

2. How does the speaker of “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” describe the school she passes? How does the narrator of “Half a Day” describe school once he has settled in?

3. How do Dickinson’s speaker’s surroundings change as her journey progresses? What sorts of changes does Mahfouz’s narrator observe as he tries to walk home from school?

4. What is the “House that seemed / A swelling of the ground” (Lines 17-18)? How does this compare to where “Half a Day” leaves its narrator?

1. Both narrators are embarking on a (literal or figurative) trip: The speaker in “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” enters a personified Death’s “Carriage” (Line 3), while the protagonist of “Half a Day” is walking to his first day of school (Paragraph 1), accompanied by his father. Dickinson’s narrator is accepting of the change, even describing death as “kindly” intervening in her life (Line 2), whereas Mahfouz’s is apprehensive and reluctant to leave home.

2. The poem’s narrator describes the schoolchildren as “striving” during “recess” (Lines 9, 10), perhaps hinting at her views on human existence broadly; life is a struggle even when it seems it should be easy. Mahfouz unquestionably portrays school as a microcosm of human life, complete with adversity, triumphs, disappointments, romances, etc.: “Those who were able took advantage of the opportunities for success and happiness that presented themselves amid the worries” (Paragraph 15).

3. Dickinson’s narrator moves from more “human,” inhabited spaces (e.g., the schoolyard in Lines 9-10) to the fringes of human life and finally beyond it (the farmland of Line 11, the graveyard of Lines 21-24); the sun also sets as she’s traveling (Line 12). In “Half a Day,” the narrator encounters several changes that indicate time’s passage (as well as, more specifically, the cultural and socioeconomic changes that took place in 20th-century Egypt): The formerly garden-lined streets are now full of skyscrapers and cars, the neighborhood is overcrowded and the country apparently under military rule, and there is a general sense of chaos and social disintegration (Paragraph 19).

4. The “House” is a grave (the fact that its roof is “scarcely visible” and its cornice—just beneath the roof—underground is an additional clue). The ending of “Half a Day” is more ambiguous, with the narrator struggling to cross a busy road (Paragraph 19). It’s clear that he is now an old man because a young man addresses him as “Grandpa”; coupled with the fact that myth and literature often depict death as a “crossing,” the young man’s offer to help the protagonist to the other side of the street may indicate that he too is on the verge of death.

Refer to and incorporate details from both the story and the poem over the course of the activity. Be ready to share your work or findings with peers, as well as an analysis of your process (such as how your ideas evolved, or what surprised you along the way).

1. Both “Half a Day” and “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” contain vocabulary you might not have encountered before, especially when it reflects the writer’s era or culture (e.g., “tippet” or “tarboosh”). Make a list of words that are unfamiliar or less familiar to you (aim to find at least three from each work) and look them up in a dictionary. After doing so, pair up with another student to compare your lists and discuss each writer’s word choice. How does word choice contribute to the work in terms of character, setting, theme, etc.?

2. We often talk about life as a “journey,” and many cultures have envisioned the transition from life to death in similar terms. Think about the physical journeys that “Half a Day” and “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” feature—a cross-city trek and a carriage ride—and then develop your own travel-based metaphor for human life. Use this metaphor as the basis for a creative work. This may be a poem or short story if you enjoy writing, but feel free to explore other media as well (e.g., creating a drawing or staging a brief play).