Emily Dickinson- Because I could not halt for Death

Introduction

This calm and nostalgic verse has a slight eerie feeling to it and displays how the author of the poem is so acknowledging of death. Many components of this verse include references to Dickinson's theory concerning the circle, and how everything that goes on, is in the centre of the circle, and we are merely on the edge, watching what goes on. We can see how this is incorporated into the poem in the first two lines of the poem This shows that we lack control, and have no say in what happens to us because we are on the edge of the circle. In this instance, death is in the centre of the circle, and is therefore in control of the person because death decides to stop, whether the person like it or not. Death is referred to as 'he' in the second line, which tells the reader that death has been personified. It seems that the speaker of the poem feels as if it was almost a privilege that death wanted to stop on her, and we see that in the line. "The Carriage held but just ourselves and immortality" (Knapp, 1989, 67). The next two lines show more evidence that death has been personified because the speaker in the poem is sitting in a carriage with him. We can see that person is about to go on a journey with death because she is picked up by death in a carriage. Often during life when a man and a woman sit in a carriage together, it's when they become married, and death is being shown to be a special occasion, just like marriage. She's promised herself to death and eternity, just how a wife promises herself to her husband.

Critical Analysis

The speaker of the poem becomes passive as the journey with death begins. We see in the next stanza how the speaker of the poem so easily puts away everything in her life, all her feelings and responsibilities for death we slowly drove- he knew no haste, And I had to put away, my labor and my leisure too, For his civility. The speaker has almost been coaxed by death to forget everything in her life by his charm and chivalry. We see all the words are capitalised to show how they are so important, almost as if the only reason ...