Module-3 Critical Appreciation of American Poetry "Because I Could not Stop for Death By Emily Dickinson

1. BA-V - CC-509
Because I could not stop for Death -
Emily Dickinson
JPGohil
Prepared by: J P GOHIL

2. Emily Elizabeth Dickinson
• Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 –
May 15, 1886) an American poet.
• Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts.
• Dickinson lived much of her life highly introverted
and in seclusion.
• Emily Dickinson wrote almost 1800 poems during
her life.
• Her poetry is original and ignoring or working against
many of the traditions and conventions of the time.
• Her poems are almost all short, using the traditional
hymnal stanza of quatrains of lines alternating
between four and three beats.
JPGohil

3. ..
• Dickinson’s poems use largely complex language,
many off-rhymes, and unconventional punctuation
to deal with a small set of themes that she returned
to again and again.
• Prominent themes of her poems are Death, grief,
passion, faith, truth, and fame and success.
JPGohil

4. Because I could not stop for Death --"
• “Because I Could not stop for Death” is the most enigmatic
lyric poem written by Emily Dickinson.
• It was first published posthumously in “Poems : Series 1” in
1890.
• The poem was first published under the title “The Chariot”.
• The poem is about Death which is personified as a
gentleman suitor who takes a leisurely carriage ride with the
poet to her grave.
• She also personifies Immortality as a fellow traveller.
• Her metaphors explore DEATH in an attractive and original
way.
• They often contain much ambiguity as significance.
JPGohil

5. ..
• The poem is a remarkable masterpiece that exercises thought
between the known and the unknown.
• Throughout the poem, Dickinson develops her unusual
interpretation of DEATH.
• And, by doing so, she composes a poem full of imagery that is
both unique and thought provoking.
JPGohil

6. Because I could not stop for Death --"
-Emily Dickinson
STANZA 1 & 2
Because I could not stop for Death –
He kindly stopped for me –
The Carriage held but just Ourselves –
And Immortality.
We slowly drove – He knew no haste
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too,
For His Civility –
JPGohil

7. STANZA 3 & 4
We passed the School, where Children strove
At Recess – in the Ring –
We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain –
We passed the Setting Sun –
Or rather – He passed us –
The Dews drew quivering and chill –
For only Gossamer, my Gown –
My Tippet – only Tulle –
JPGohil

8. STANZA 5 & 6
We paused before a House that seemed
A Swelling of the Ground –
The Roof was scarcely visible –
The Cornice – in the Ground –
Since then – 'tis Centuries – and yet
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses' Heads
Were toward Eternity –
@@@JPGohil

9. Glossary
• Haste – hurry
• Put away - Throw or cast away
• Leisure -Time available for ease and relaxation
• Civility - The act of showing regard for others, courtesy
• Gazing - Look at with fixed eyes
• Dews – water vapour
• Quiver – tremble
• Gossamer - So thin as to transmit light
• Tippet - A woman's fur shoulder cap with hanging ends; often
consisting of the whole fur of a fox or marten
• Tulle - net
• Cornice - A decorative framework
• Eternity – Endless or everlasting Time
• Surmise – guess, Imagine to be the case, true or probable
JPGohil

10. Critical Appreciation
• The poem is a source of considerable controversy.
• There are several fundamental ideas on which most critics agree :
• First, Dickinson personifies Death as a gentleman taking the speaker
for a ride in his carriage.
• Second the three images presented in the third stanza, the children
“in the ring”, the “ Fields of Gazing Grain” and the “Setting Sun”
indicate the stages of life, from childhood to maturity to old age
and death.
• Third the speaker’s garments of “Gossamer” and “Tulle” indicate
that she could not have been expecting the carriage ride to last
forever when she set out, as she does not even have foresight to
dress warmly.
• Fourth, the “ House that seemed A swelling of the Ground” –
represents a grave.
• Fifth, the last two lines – “ I first surmised the Horses’ Heads / Were
toward Eternity” – seem to mean that the soul is eternal in spite of
the death of a person.
JPGohil

11. • In this poem, the speaker is communicating from
beyond the grave.
• She describes her journey with Death personified,
from life to afterlife.
• In the opening stanza, the speaker is too busy for Death
(“Because I could not stop for Death—“), so Death—
“kindly”—takes the time to do what she cannot, and
stops for her.
• This “civility” that Death exhibits in taking time out for
her leads her to give up on those things that had made
her so busy—“And I had put away/My labor and my
leisure too”—so they can just enjoy this carriage ride
(“We slowly drove – He knew no haste”).
JPGohil

12. • In the third stanza we see reminders of the world that the
speaker is passing from, with children playing and fields of
grain.
• Her place in the world shifts between this stanza and the
next; in the third stanza, “We passed the Setting Sun—,”
but at the opening of the fourth stanza, she corrects this—
“Or rather – He passed Us –“—because she has stopped
being an active agent, and is only now a part of the
landscape.
• In this stanza, after the realization of her new place in the
world, her death also becomes suddenly very physical, as
“The Dews drew quivering and chill—,” and she explains
that her dress is only gossamer, and her “Tippet,” a kind of
cape usually made out of fur, is “only Tulle.”
JPGohil

13. • After this moment of seeing the coldness of her death, the
carriage pauses at her new “House.”
• The description of the house—“A Swelling of the Ground—“—
makes it clear that this is no cottage, but instead a grave.
• Yet they only “pause” at this house, because although it is
appeared her home, it is really only a resting place as she
travels to eternity.
• The final stanza shows a glimpse of this immortality, made
most clear in the first two lines, where she says that although
it has been centuries since she has died, it feels no longer
than a day.
• It is not just any day that she compares it to, however—it is
the very day of her death, when she saw “the Horses’ Heads”
that were pulling her towards this eternity.JPGohil

14. • Dickinson’s poems deal with ‘Death’ again and
again, and it is never quite the same in any poem.
In “Because I could not stop for Death—,” we see
that ‘Death’ is personified.
• He (Death) is not frightening, nor looked like
Devil, but rather a courteous and gentle guide,
leading her to eternity.
• The speaker feels no fear when Death picks her
up in his carriage, she just sees it as an act of
kindness, as she was too busy to find time for
him.
JPGohil

15. • It is this kindness, this individual attention to her (it is
emphasized in the first stanza) that the carriage holds
just the two of them.
• This courtesy of Death leads the speaker to so easily
give up on her life and what it contained.
• This is explicitly stated, as it is “For His Civility” that she
puts away her “labor” and her “leisure”
• Here Dickinson is using metonymy to represent
another alliterative word—her life.
• Metonymy means Substituting the name of an
attribute or feature for the name of the thing itself (as
in 'they counted heads')
JPGohil

16. • Indeed, the next stanza shows the life is not so
great, as this quiet, slow carriage ride is
contrasted with what she sees as they go.
• A school scene of children playing, which
could be emotional, is instead only an
example of the difficulty of life—although the
children are playing “At Recess,” the verb she
uses is “strove,” emphasizing the labors of
existence.
JPGohil

17. • The next stanza moves to present a more conventional
vision of death—things become cold and more sinister, the
speaker’s dress is not thick enough to warm or protect her.
• Yet it quickly becomes clear that though this part of
death—the coldness, and the next stanza’s image of the
grave leads to the final stanza, which ends with
“Immortality.”
• Additionally, the use of alliteration in this stanza that
emphasizes the material trappings—“gossamer” “gown”
and “tippet” “tulle”—makes the stanza as a whole.
JPGohil

18. • That immortality is the goal is hinted at in the first
stanza, where “Immortality” is the only other
passenger of the carriage.
• yet it is only in the final stanza that we see that the
speaker has obtained the Immortality.
• Time suddenly loses its meaning; hundreds of years
feel no different than a day.
• Because time is gone, the speaker can still feel with
relish that moment of realization, that death was not
just death, but immortality because she “surmised the
Horses’ Heads/Were toward Eternity –.”
• By ending with “Eternity –,” the poem itself enacts this
eternity, trailing out into the infinite.
JPGohil

19. JPGohil