BECAUSE I COULD NOT

STOP FOR DEATH

Emily Dickinson
 Emily Dickinson
(1830-1886)

 An American lyrical poet born in Amherst,

Massachusetts.
 She was a very eccentric, private person.
 She rarely left her house or had any visitors.
 Her poems often reflected on her loneliness, other
feelings and what mattered to her the most.
 Emily did not care about money or fame in fact she
didn’t want the public to read her poems.
 She wrote hundreds of poems but only 7 were
released into the public in her life time.
 Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.

 This stanza reveals Emily’s calm

acceptance of death.
 Death is seen as kind and polite.
 The journey to her grave begins
when death comes calling.
 We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility

 The drive symbolizes her physical

leaving life.
 He drives her slowly, which could be
an expression of his consideration
for her.
 Having relinquished her labor and
leisure for the ride, she gives death
her respect and full attention.
 We Passed the school, where children strove
At recess, in the ring;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.

 Here Dickinson speaks about the

different stages of her life.
 …children at recess symbolizes her
childhood
 …gazing grain, her maturity/adulthood
 …the setting sun, her final years and
decent into death.
 The atmosphere surrounding the ride
begins to change when we see the
setting sun.
 Or rather, he passed us;
The dews grew quivering and chill,
For only gossamer my gown,
My tippet only tulle.
 Being passed by the sun signifies that
her life went by quickly.
 With the sun setting it becomes dark,
damp and cold in contrast to the light
and warmth of the preceding stanzas.
 Her garments are more appropriate for
a wedding, representing a new
beginning, that for a funeral,
representing an end.
 We paused before house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.

 The word “house” is used as a

euphemism for a grave to indicate
how comfortable she feels about
death.
 In this stanza she describes her new
home (grave).
 Since then ‘tis centuries, and yet each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses’ heads
Were toward eternity.
 It’sbeen centuries since her
carriage ride with Death (the time
she has been dead).
 But the time since, seems shorter
than the day of which she was alive.
Vocabulary:
 Gossamer- a wedding dress (used to marry
death)
 Tippet- a scarf for the neck and shoulders
 Tulle- a fine net of silk used especially for
wedding veils
 Cornice- a horizontal molding along top of a
wall
 Surmise- to make a guess or conjecture