Essay - Emily Dickinson Embraces Death Because I Could Not Stop for...

Emily Dickinson Embraces Death

BECAUSE I COULD NOT STOP FOR DEATH

***** kindly stopped for me —

The Carriage held but just Ourselves —

And Immortality. 5

We slowly drove —

***** knew no haste —

And I had put away My labor — and my leisure too, For His Civility.

We passed the School where Children strove 10

At Recess — in the Ring —

We passed ***** Fields of Gazing Grain —

We ***** the Setting Sun —

Or rather — He passed Us-

The Dews drew quivering and chill — 15

For only Gossa*****r, my Gown —

My Tippet — only Tulle —

We paused before a House th*****t seemed

***** of the Ground —

The roof was scarcely visible — 20

***** Cornice — in ***** Ground

***** then — 'tis Centuries — and yet Feels shorter than the Day first surmised the Horses' Heads

Were toward Eternity —

***** first reaction to Emily *****'s poem "Because ***** could ********** stop for death," is admiration for the poetic form. It is so perfect in it's rhythm ***** the way ***** words flow from beginning to end even through images are not immediately clear. I'm at once impressed because I can feel that huge ideas ***** packed into a sm*****ll space. What is most obvious in the first reading ***** that ***** poem is about *****. Death is personified as the driver of a carriage. *****, or ***** unknown, is being transf*****med into familiar everyday life. The poem reminds me of Robert Frost because he, *****, is a deep thinker on big questi*****s like death, feeling t***** need to balance the known and ***** unknown, ***** bring abstraction into reality, ***** into life. Th***** poem reminds me ***** Frost's poem

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, with it's famous line, "And miles to go before I sleep." Like Frost, Dickinson lines are memorable ***** epigramatic. Her words sound like great truths or proverbs ***** we have heard a thous*****nd times. They re***** with a sense of truth and completeness, ***** ***** wonder, why didn't anybody ever say it like this befo*****.

After the first ***** as I begin to think about the poem more pr*****oundly I see that *****'s imagery makes Death a lover. He is "kindly." The word "Ourselves," adds a sense of intim*****cy ***** I visualize the interior of the *****. He is a man of "civility," and manners who makes ***** female passenger forget both "labor" and "leisure." In Dickinson's time a drive in a c*****rriage was one of the rituals of courtship. ***** her youth Emily most likely went on romantic drives with young gentlemen. Perhaps in this case, Immortality, who seems to be the third ***** in the carriage, is the chaper*****e, or the immortal soul that *****es along *****yw*****e with the body. As the f*****al line of the first stanza, "And Immortality," shorter and alone, helps to streng*****n the sense of the second passenger.

Ano*****r reaction I had was that