Death is frequently described through various figures of speech and imagery to communicate what a writer envisions of it. In “Because I Could Not Stop for Death,” Emily Dickinson presents her points of view in regard to Death and eternality. The writing’s speaker informs us that Death, exemplified as the guide, sympathetically halted for her in a carriage, similar to a cabbie visiting to get a traveler. The author ably applies tone, personification, and metaphor to outline the lethargic journey of an individual from life to Death.
One unmistakable artistic component that Dickinson uses in her text is tone, which is utilized to assist with making the overall mindset of the literary piece. It is intriguing to note that her tone concerning demise stands out from the period when the work was written. This poem has an exceptionally particular style and mindset for the 19th century. Dickinson made demise into being wonderful and depicts the end of life as a benevolent man of his word, maybe even a suitor, who is having a good time with her out in a carriage (2-10). The author portrays children playing, giving the sonnet a more amiable state of mind (Dickinson 9-10). The tone, which is the artist’s voice or speaker in verse, is quiet and estimated.
The speaker knows about what’s going on around her yet is not excessively passionate about it. This is kept up with the initial not many refrains until the speaker draws nearer to Death. Slowly, events begin to transform a bit, and the tone turns out to be eviler. The speaker and the suitor move along at a beautiful pace, and the speaker appears calm with the refined man. As they go through the town, she sees kids at play, fields of grain, and the sunset. As an elegant man’s suitor, Death stops to get the speaker and takes her on a ride in his carriage drawn by a horse. Thus, the tone of the poem slowly proceeds from life and youth towards inevitability and mortality.
Dickinson applies the personification of Death as a lengthy embodiment. The person improvement shows readers that Death is amiable and gentle. Passing is the sort of fellow who might hold the entryway open for his date and deal her his jacket on a crisp evening. Passing is presented immediately as the poem’s main person and focal point, playing out a human activity. This exemplification of Death as a male suitor proceeds all through the sonnet. In the line “We slowly drove-He knew no haste,” the person Death is driving along leisurely (Dickinson 5). Maybe this could be something more like passing from a lung ailment or gradually biting the dust of advanced age in one’s rest.
Dickinson integrates metaphor to show the tranquility of the speaker. In the last refrain, the speaker rides with Death, yet it seems like just yesterday when she felt that the horse’s final destination is “Eternity” (Dickinson 24). Accordingly, the journey flagged the entry from life to Death to the great beyond. The speaker’s last stop and last resting place. The house is an allegory for the grave. Dickinson needs to uphold the possibility that the speaker acknowledges Death.
In the poem “Because I Could Not Stop for Death,” Death is depicted as a refined man who comes to give the speaker a ride to endlessness. All through the writing, Dickinson fosters her unique understanding of Death and, this way makes the work full of metaphor and other literary devices that are both extraordinary and interesting. The tone of the poem changes as she depicts playing with children. It continues to represent the fields of grain she is riding through. Another picture that is seen is that of the sunset. Because of the composition of nineteenth-century artists, readers are given a wide range of methods for different parts of life.
Work Cited
Dickinson, Emily. “Because I Could Not Stop for Death.” The Norton Introduction to Literature, by Kelly J Mays, W.W. Norton & Company, 2016, p. 492.