Because I Coluld Not Stop For Death
Published on Nov 18, 2015
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PRESENTATION OUTLINE
BECAUSE I COULD NOT STOP FOR DEATH
BY: EMILY DICKINSON
THE OVERALL MEANING
The overall meaning of the poem is that life is short and that even if one is unwilling, everyone dies and leaves something behind.
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Death also is perceived as unexpected and peaceful throughout the poem, and Dickinson positively asserts to death as being the gateway to immortality.
Photo by David Paul Ohmer
All Device
-Personification
-Anaphora
-Metaphor
-Enjambment
-Allusion
Poem
Stanza 1
-Death stopped for her despite her inability to stop for him, and she is in a carriage with death and immortality
Stanza 2
The Narrator is giving up her schedule to join death in his slow traveling. Death is perceived as a kind character.
Stanza 3
Children running at recess symbolizes the youth which the narrator is passsing, symbolizing her progression through life and how she is no longer a child. This can also be seen as the narrator having a flashback to her childhood.
(Continued)
"At Recess- in the Ring" alludes to ring around the Rosie which is also symbolic of death. People entering the afterlife also are seen running through fields exemplifying joy and (new) life surrounded by the life of the plants. The setting sun represents the end (of the day), and in the narrators case, the end of her life.
Stanza 4
The sun outlasted them three travelers, or it survived longer than they did. The narrator states that she was unprepared to take this trip of death as shown by her underdressing. One often becomes cold before they die which stops your body from producing heat, which is another allusion to death.
Stanza 5
"A Swelling of the ground" means that the 'house' is coming out of the ground, and is not fully visible. From this one can imply the woman is talking about a gravestone. This is because it is the home of the death/ where the dead rest.
Stanza 6
The woman has been dead for centuries, however it doesn't seem that long. In other words time flies when you are dead. The "Horses' Heads" refers to the horse drawn carriage that carries the dead. She states that she thought she was being taken to eternity.
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Personification
Death is personified
"Because I could not stop for death- HE stopped for me"
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Anaphora
"We passed" repeated at the beginning of sentences in the third stanza
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Metaphor
The woman's tombstone is compared to "A swelling of the ground"
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Enjambment
(the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza.)
"We passed the setting sun-
Or rather- He passed us-"
There is no punctuation indicating a pause, and despite the end of the stanza, the sentence or thought is continued.
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Allusion
The "Setting Sun" alludes to the end (of a day) and in this case the end of the woman's life. "At recess- in the ring" also alludes to Ring Around the Rosie which is symbolic of death.
Photo by Alejandro Erickson
