38 pages • 1 hour read
Emily DickinsonBecause I Could Not Stop for Death
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1890A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Themes
The Inevitability of Death
At the beginning of “Because I could not stop for Death,” the speaker has just died. She has experienced a profound shift and, as the events of the poem will reveal, entered a new zone of experience. However, Dickinson describes the person of Death as “kindly” (Line 2), unhurried, and polite (as indicated by the word “Civility” in Line 8). This is not a traumatic transition from life into the afterlife, but instead the pleasant start of a new journey, led by a gracious gentleman.
Before the carriage comes, the speaker ceased working and resting, her life’s events now completely behind her: “I had put away — / My labor and my leisure too” (Lines 6-7). Her tone is matter-of-fact, as if she has completed a routine chore and not departed tragically from her loved ones.
However, Death still determines the course of events. The first line of the poem, which serves as its title, indicates that the speaker is not capable of calling Death’s carriage to pick her up. Death arrives on his schedule, and the speaker is glad to climb aboard. He leads the carriage at leisurely pace as from her seat, the speaker observes a series of images traditionally associated with the passage of a human life.
However, as soon as the sun sets, the poem takes on a foreboding tone: The temperature drops enough to make the speaker notice that her dress is only made of gossamer, a word that describes spider webs and connotes eerie abandonment. The speaker’s final sight is a grave, which the speaker observes with interest, noting the details in the dark. She does not seem to realize the “Swelling of the Ground” (Line 18) is her final resting place and that the carriage was, all along, a hearse.
Although Dickinson was well-versed in Biblical Scriptures and attended church, she omits the religious imagery with which her Calvinist community would be familiar. Rather than a glorious place where angels and human souls worship God, eternity resembles a country road. Furthermore, death is not an enemy but a friend. Some commentators even liken this carriage ride with a 19th-century date, during which a woman might spend time with a suitor (in this case, Death) and a chaperone (Immortality). Such a reading enhances the positive associations with death in this poem.
The Soul’s Relationship with Time
Both immortality and eternity appear in “Because I could not stop for Death.” The former is a companion, and the latter is a destination on the speaker’s journey. The speaker travels slowly through time at first as she becomes accustomed to death. Then, suddenly, the end of the poem speeds centuries ahead as the speaker reveals that she has been describing events that took place centuries ago—centuries that to her have felt “shorter than the Day” (Line 22).
Time appears at once flexible and unyielding in this poem because the speaker exists at the mercy of unstoppable forces. She cannot not determine the time of her death, the speed of the carriage, or the direction of the horses. Moreover, the speaker cannot determine the sun’s pace in the sky. She observes the sun’s passage, and then corrects herself when she realizes that she is no longer capable of movement: “We passed the Setting Sun — / Or rather — He passed Us —” (Lines 12-13). This emphasizes how the engines of time are the ultimate authority and how much agency the speaker lacks during her journey.
The speaker’s hope, however, is the personified Immortality, the speaker’s fellow passenger in Death’s carriage. Immortality’s presence assures her that she has eternal life. The poem’s content, tone, and the fact that its final word is followed by a dash that gestures at the infinite amount of time to come, “Eternity —” (Line 24), all indicate that although death is permanent, the afterlife is infused with mysterious hope.
Life as a Journey
The central image of the poem, that of a carriage and its passengers, draws attention to the notion of life as a journey. The carriage driver, Death, travels with the speaker of the poem and one other passenger: “Immortality” (Line 4). The movement of the carriage is a metaphor for the passage of time, suggesting that life is a journey that eventually must end.
Death and his passengers pass various scenes on their travels that represent different stages of life. First, they drive past a school, where they observe children playing, drawing the speaker’s attention to their lively activity, and then they pass fields against which “the Setting Sun,” (Line 12) a symbol of old age, casts its fading light. This movement from childhood to old age takes place in a single stanza, alerting the reader to the speed with which the journey of life can pass, even when individual days feel long.
In the next stanza, the speaker describes the physical sensation of a chill, which emphasizes the absence of the sun’s warmth at this stage in her journey, and in her life, as the coolness she feels indicates the cessation of life. The temperature drops as the light disappears, but it is unclear if the “Chill” (Line 14) to which the speaker refers has to do with the time of day or with the fact that the speaker’s own body lacks the warmth of life because she is now dead. The speaker notices that her dress is made of lightweight fabric, drawing a comparison between her clothing and a shroud.
The penultimate stanza of the poem describes a gravesite, but the speaker’s word choice, which include “House” (Line 17), “Roof” (Line 19), and “Cornice” (Line 20) all suggest a residence where people pass the days of their lives. The comparison of a grave to a house is ironic, as the burial site is a resting place for the dead, and its finality warrants an entire stanza in which the speaker emphasizes this contrast between the journey of life and the stillness of death.
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