Resumo de Because I Could Not Stop For Death

The title suggests that once again Emily has chosen ?Death? as a stimulant for her poetry. Probably Emily is the only poet who has treated Death as her chivalrous lover.

Emily Dickinson was born on 10, December 1830, in a little town called Amherst of North America. Her poems are known as funerary poems. Failure of relationships with men had disillusioned her and she had become a recluse. Her personal crisis reflected on her poetry.

The poem ?Because I Could Not Stop for Death? is an essay on death-in life. The death as an objective fact and a subjective experience is well presented in the poem.

Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.

Nobody can choose his/her time of death; hence Emily waits for death to stop at her door. By using the word ?kindly? Emily has treated death as her romantic lover who has come to pick-up his beloved for a country ride. She is well at ease riding along with death and immortality.

We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility.

She seems to enjoy the leisurely ride. She does not regret for the things she has left behind but admires his civility.

We passed the school where children played
And wrestling in a ring;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.

Though she is in the company of death, she uses imagery of life. Here ?children? represents youth, ?Gazing grain? represents maturity and ?sun? refers to the time and age. The ?setting sun? is associated with the closure of life?s journey- death. Beyond sunset the space belongs to the Eternity.
We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.

The word play ?passed? and ?paused? has to be noted. ?A swelling of the ground? refers to the grave. Perhaps the poet is looking down at the dead who are sleeping in their cold graves with pity, whereas she is willingly accompanying death with pride.

By writing the lines ?The roof was scarcely visible?
The cornice but a mound?
Emily seems to be mocking at the church. It is said that Emily was ostracized by the church for expressing strong opinions.

Since then ?tis centuries; but each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horse?s heads
Were toward eternity.

Finally, Emily realizes that she is drawn ?towards eternity? which is the ultimate destination. She has used the imagery of horse?s head to represent life and death. Though she says centuries have passed, the elapsed time seems to her ?shorter than the day?.

The word ?surmised? carefully placed near the conclusion, proves that poet?s journey towards eternity has taken place entirely in her mind. Her last vision of ?horse?s head? prompts the reader to go back to the ?carriage? of the opening stanza.

Emily is said to be the precursor of modern poetry. The whimsicality and brilliance can be seen in her ability to juxtapose the unusual images with the usual.

Notes compiled by: J. Prabha.

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