“Because I Could Not Stop for Death”: An Analysis of Emily Dickinson’s Style

Emily Dickinson was an exceedingly eccentric poet of the Romanticism movement, whose fascination with death and the afterlife is embodied in her poem â€Å"Because I Could Not Stop for Death. † The piece opens from the viewpoint of a female speaker, who is called upon by the personified character of Death to take the journey to the afterlife. It is evident that the poet’s troubled life and disillusionment with society spurred many deep and insightful works about her perspective on her own existence. Dickinson effectively uses the tools of personification and imagery to portray a soul’s odyssey through death. Using subtle symbolism and by personifying Death as a suitor in her poem â€Å"Because I Could Not Stop for Death,† Dickinson paints an image of her concept of the final departure based on her own personal experiences. Emily Dickinson was born to a middle-class family on December 10, 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts. Her father was a Yale-graduate, chief financial officer, lawyer, congressman, and an intellectual; he was not very involved in Dickinson’s life, albeit serving as her inspiration (Spiller 810). On the other hand, she did not get along with her mother: â€Å"Emily Norcross was not an intellectual by nature- she barely understood much of her daughter’s poetry†¦ the mother was lonely and nonliterary,† (Forman n. p. ). Forman also states that Dickinson was frustrated that her educational horizons were limited as a woman, although she attended the esteemed Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (Emily n. p. ). Furthermore, her education was terminated due to her lifelong health complications resulting from polio. Her family consistently failed to support her, and she felt fettered by the life she was living. Around the age of 28, Dickinson suffered from an emotional crisis which caused her to write prolifically; she drew into herself and her profound mind, preferring to express herself mainly through letters and poems (Blake n. p. ). Throughout the course of her life, Dickinson exhibited many strange tendencies. She always dressed in white and remained a recluse. She refused to leave her home for any reason (Forman n. p. ). This was the direct result of her experiencing the death of two childhood friends, as well her chronic health issues; Dickinson often felt disconnected to the world around her. She was inspired by a world manifesting itself as unpredictable, violent, and terrifying. She had suspected that the world was defective for some time† (Blake 218). Her perspective on her life, as well as her disillusionment from her surroundings, became reflected in her poems. â€Å"[Her] work†¦should be seen in terms of traditions of withdrawal from the world and of her resistance to them†(Wolosky n. p. ). Most notably during this phase in her life, however, Dickinson developed an occupation with the concept of death and the possibility of an afterlife. Many of her poems have come to embody her personal contemplations about mortality and death, particularly â€Å"Because I Could Not Stop for Death,† (Explanation n. p. ). Primarily in this work, Dickinson effectively uses the character of Death to convey the message that death is not a cruel, cold process. â€Å"Death is personified, or described in terms of human characteristics†¦. Figuratively, this poem is about one woman’s ‘date’ with death. Death is a gentleman,†¦ who makes a call at a home of a naive young woman. †(Explanation n. p. ). By representing mortality as a kind, courteous suitor whom the narrator seems to have been anticipating, the notion arises that Death is nothing but an old friend who was always expected to come. It becomes an inevitability; it is not unpleasant in the least. Dickinson envisions Death as a person she knows and trusts: The carriage holds but the two of them, yet the ride, as she states with quiet emphasis, is a last ride together. Clearly there has been no deception on his part. †¦ Indeed, his graciousness in taking time to stop for her at hat point and on that day in her life when she was so busy she could not possibly have taken time to stop for him, is a mark of special politeness. She is therefore quite willing to put aside her work (Johnson 222). The narrator welcomes Death, and although he was an unexpected caller, knows that he was bound to come. Thus, she â€Å"had put away/ [Her] labor, and [her] leisure too,/ For his civility† (Dickinson 1). Dickinson also effica ciously uses symbolism in this poem to bring out various feelings and emotions in the reader, strengthening the overall mood, and therefore the meaning of the poem. By her use of specific syntax and diction, the poem is able to showcase the exact feelings evoked by death and immortality, as well as the feelings associated with the unconventional exposure to Death himself. In the poem â€Å"Because I Could Not Stop for Death†, the narrator’s journey was described as a slow scenic drive, across the fields of grain and past the setting sun (explanation, n. p. ). The fields of grain represents society and how while alive, the fields of grain escaped the notice of the narrator, but now, while traveling with Death, she finally can appreciate the true beauty and power of nature. The setting sun reflects the end of one journey and the beginning of another, just like how the setting sun ends the day and signals the start of nighttime (explanation, n. p. ). Dickinson uses the transition of the setting sun to show the narrator’s transition from life to death. Dickinson was able to portray, through her extensive use of imagery, the ambiguity as to whether the narrator is alive or dead; the fact is not directly stated in the poem. Rather, there is a slow transition of the narrator’s state of being. The narrator starts off leaving the comfort of her house, invited for what feels like a ride in the park. However, as the poem progresses, the narrator is seen growing cold, and her clothes fade â€Å"only tippet only tulle†. The light gossamer articles of clothing and the coldness suggest that the narrator has indeed died, and faded into the afterlife. The whole concept of time is also manipulated to give the poem such a dream-like feel. During her journey with Death, time slows down to a point where it doesn’t exist; time is a human creation, and death does not follow time (Priddy, n. p. As she passes the children frolicking in the playground, she vicariously lives through her childhood again; another lifetime has passed, from the youthful days of childhood to the ripening of the grain to the setting of the sun (Johnson, n. p. ). The- sense of time being inconsistent and changing allows the journey with Death to gain a truly surreal and abstract feeling. From start to finish, Dickinson masterfully creates a striking image of the human process of death, putting to full use the tools of personification and imagery, as well as subtle symbolism in her poem â€Å"Because I Could Not Stop for Death. Her own personal struggles with the concept of death give Dickinson the ability to capture the mystery and possibilities of the final departure with words; she was able to translate the true emotions associated with death into poetry. To Dickinson, the existence of an afterlife made death not only the end of one journey, but also the start of another; death is not an evil, but rather a necessary process. The net effect of literary devices combined with Romanticist beliefs results in a work that provides monumental insight into the world Emily Dickinson built around herself, specifically pertaining to her image of Death .