BSc BA ADP English Notes Poem Because I Could not Stop for Death (Emily Dickinson) Summary & Introduction

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Because I Could not Stop for Death (Emily Dickinson) Introduction

This is a very serious poem in which the poetess talks about death and its soft and gentle approach. The poetess has written a large number of poems about death but this is one of her best poems on the subject matter. Death here appears as a gentle coach driver, who, very kindly, stops for her and takes her towards eternity.

Because I Could not Stop for Death (Emily Dickinson) Summary

The poetess could not stop her works of day-to-day life for dying. So death was kind enough to stop for her and give her a seat in his coach. The coach, for the time being, did not have any other traveler. They drove slowly onward. They passed new the school where children were at play in their recess period. They passed near the fields.

Later, they passed near the setting sun or, rather, the setting sun passed near them. Dew began to fall and it grew very cold whereas her muffler and gown were very thin and gauze-type. They paused before a grave. The height of the grave from the earth/ground was not much. Later on, she forgot all the time and space. So she realized that actually death was not taking her only towards a grave but towards eternity and out of the time and space world. She realized what she had not noticed then, that the heads of the horses of the coach of death were in the direction of eternity.