Dickinson, Emily. “Because I Could Not Stop for Death.”

“Because I Could Not Stop for Death”

Why couldn’t the speaker “stop for Death”?

Most people don’t want to die or are not ready. If she stopped for “Death” she would be giving up on life.

How is death personified in this poem? How does the speaker respond to him? Why are they accompanied by immortality?

Death in the poem is personified as being a real person. It made me think of the grim reaper. The speaker responds to him by getting into the carriage she lets death stop for her. The speaker is trying to say that death is not the end.

What is the significance of the things they “passed” in the third stanza?

The school could represent innocent of childhood.  Then she moves on to the different stages of life the speaker has “passed.”

What is the “House” in lines 17-20?

It can be inferred this is why the speaker is buried at. The “Swellling of the ground” indicates that something is in the ground.

Discuss the rhythm of the lines. How, for example, is the rhythm of line 14 related to its meaning?

Line 14 actually gives the reader a picture and also a feeling.

Works Cited

Dickinson, Emily. “Because I Could Not Stop for Death.” The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. 9^th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s 2012. 844. Print.