In Emily Dickinson’s “Because I could not cease for Death “ (448), the speaker of the poem is a lady who relates about a situation following her death. The speaker personifies death as a polite and considerate gentleman who takes her in a carriage for a romantic journey however, at the finish of this poem, she finishes her expedition realizing that she has died numerous years ago.
The poem consists of six quatrains, and does not adhere to any constant rhyme scheme. Just about every line starts with a sturdy beat and ends up with a weak beat. The first and third lines in each stanza have iambic tetrameter, but the second and fourth lines do not contain any consistent meter. The feet generate a rhythm the following way.
Bevcause/ Iv | could/ notV | quit/ | forv Death/
Hev kind/lyv | stopped/ | forv me/
This rhythm mimics the sound of horses’ hooves on the ground. Emily Dickinson correlates the speaker’s expression of her journey “toward Eternity-“(l. 24) with horses’ hoofed feet in her allegory (Class note).
In the very first stanza, she starts her journey with a refined gentleman named Death who requires her in the carriage. Even though in the 1st line “Because I could not stop for Death” (l. 1), the poet offers us a hint of the speaker’s disappearance in the world, the speaker thinks that she is nevertheless alive. The poet chooses a special term “Immortality” (l. 4) to show that at the starting of her journey the speaker is young and enthusiastic to tell about her existence of life in the globe and that she cannot feel of dying.
In the second stanza, Death drives her so smoothly and gently that the ride makes her pretty pleased. She is so naive and adolescent that she leaves her worldly activities and gets prepared to go out and devote time with her boyfriend. She offers him her possessions: her “labor” and “leisure” also (l. 7) for his politeness.
Figuratively, in stanza three, the poem symbolizes the 3 stages of life: childhood represented by “Children strove” (l. 9), youth represented by “the Fields of Gazing Grains” (l. 11) and the end of the life represented by “the Setting Sun” (l. 12). On the way of her journey, the speaker views kids struggling to win in the race in School. She also sees cereal grasses collectively in the field, and at last the speaker…