Because I couldn't stop for death poem

 Because I couldn't stop for death

Poem

Introduction:

      The poem 'Because I could not stop for Death', written around 1863, tries to capture mortal experience in terms of immortality. The idea of death is boldly treated without any of the emotions of fear, anxiety or pain that usually accompany it. Death is personified as a gentle friend who is taking the poet on a carriage ride to eternity. 'The second passenger in the carriage is immortality. The life after death is seen as an eternal journey. The image of the carriage and the driver is highly convincing. The use of the metaphor governs the structure of the poem. The poet anticipates her own death in this poem. She speculates about the meaning of death as well as the life after death. At the apparent level, the poet describes a funeral cession proceeding to the graveyard, but at the deeper level it deals with a spiritual journey to the eternity.

Summary

      The poetess shows that nobody has the time to think about death in his life. But it does not mean that he can escape death which is linked with man's life on earth. Death marks the end of man's earthly existence. Being a busy poetess, Dickinson has no time to ponder over death. She gives up her work and leisure to board the chariot which is being driven by Death to eternity in the company of immortality.

      The poetess has observed the chariot being driven by Death in a leisurely way. She has given up her work and social commitments to submit herself before the Will of Death. She is perfectly at ease in the company of Death and does not suffer from any sense of loss or pain, She is completely bowled over by her civility.

      Stanza III shows the picture of the chariot which passed by a school. It was he recess time and the children were busy playing in the school playground. They had hardly finished their lessons yet. Then the chariot passed by the fields filled with crops. Grains were constantly staring at the occupants or the chariot. Finally, the chariot passed by the setting sun.

      Stanza IV deals with the atmosphere prevailing at the time of the progression of the spiritual journey. The setting sun passed by them. It was very cold and wet. The poetess felt this chilly cold because was wearing gossamer for her gown and a thin cloth for her scarf.

      Stanza V further records the passage of the chariot which stopped before a house. It looked like a bulging piece of earth. The root of this house was hardly visible. The cornice of the house was at the same level as that of the earth. This marks the end of the life on earth.

      Stanza VI shows that the poetess has finally realized that she had the inkling of immortality at the very commencement of the spiritual voyage. The very march of horses was a significant clue for the start of this spiritual quest. Death has finally paved the way for eternity.

Analysis

One of the curious things about the poem is its combination of ‘labor’ and ‘leisure’, work and play, activeness and passiveness, often in surprising ways.

We can see this in the speaker’s conflation of the two, work and play, in the second stanza (she has, she tells us, ‘put away / My labor and my leisure too’), and in paradoxical description of the children at the school who are ‘striving’ (i.e. working or trying hard at something) ‘At Recess’ – i.e. during their break-time.

Rather than using the playtime to have a break from working hard, the children appear to be ‘striving’ when they should be relaxing – or perhaps they are trying hard to relax. But this complex relation between striving and relaxing, activity and indolence, is there in the opening of the poem too:

Because I could not stop for Death –

He kindly stopped for me –

We are all too busy to stop and think about dying, and are often too busy living to prepare adequately for death. And few of us would want to stop so death could claim us, so he has to do the chasing and bring us to book.

Yet that ‘kindly’ reveals that being dogged by death (or Death) was actually welcomed by the speaker, unless it’s meant ironically. And note how, in that fourth stanza, Dickinson’s speaker says that although they appeared to pass the setting sun, it’s actually more accurate to say that the setting sun passed them.

This is, of course, literally not true (we mortal earthlings travel around the sun, rather than the sun moving); but the speaker’s self- correction reinforces the poem’s preoccupation with the active and the passive, between those who do things and those who have things done to them. What does it mean to talk of dying, as though we are doing something active? It’s just about the most passive thing we can do. We have death done to us, and are merely Death’s passengers, Dickinson’s poem seems to say.

‘Because I could not stop for Death’ contains many of the hallmarks of Emily Dickinson’s best poetry: elliptical and ambiguous language and meaning, her characteristic use of the ballad metre, and a preoccupation with death. No definitive ‘analysis’ of the poem could ever be provided, so all we can do is look at how Dickinson masterfully creates such an elusive and memorable piece of poetry.

You can listen to ‘Because I could not stop for Death’