Poetry Review: Because I Could Not Stop for Death, Emily Dickinson

By Colin Jung

“Because I could not stop for Death –

He kindly stopped for me –

The Carriage held but just Ourselves –

And Immortality.”

So begins one of the most well-known poems in the English language. Written by Emily Dickinson, the poem is in six quatrains. The narrator dies after the first, and journeys towards eternity in a horse-drawn carriage with Death.

The first quatrain is written in a classic ABCB rhyme scheme, alternating between iambic tetrameter and trimeter. It is clear that the narrator would like to establish that the world of the living is structured and rational. At the end of life, we see the only period in the entire poem, a sign of a definitive and complete stop. What about Death? The narrator suggests that one cannot stop for Death. Life is continual, its subject having no knowledge of when it should end. It is, as Dickinson suggests, as if Death were based on the whim of some man, who may choose to stop and take a soul into his carriage. But what is in this carriage of Death? Death brings with it immortality. It was just her and Death on the carriage, however, so we can only take her at her word.

“We slowly drove – He knew no haste

And I had put away

My labor and my leisure too,

For His Civility –”

This is a theme that will come up again. Within eternity, there is no time. Death, whom we consider harsh and cold, drives slowly and “knows no haste.” He is also described as having great civility. Dickinson reminds us that Death is a kind soul, and someone who she willingly gave up her work and pastimes to be in the presence of.

“We passed the School, where Children strove

At Recess – in the Ring –

We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain –

We passed the Setting Sun –”

First, she passes her school, recounting her recess in the Ring. She passes the fields of grain, which bring up imagery of long days of toil –– her professional life. And lastly, she passes the Setting Sun, after which the light of life fades away and all that is left is Death. Most interesting is the brevity of the passage, combined with the focus on her childhood. Perhaps Dickinson would like to say that life is short, and the best part of it was her childhood, when she “strove at recess - in the ring.”

“Or rather – He passed Us –

The Dews drew quivering and Chill –

For only Gossamer, my Gown –

My Tippet – only Tulle –”

Most striking is the sudden inversion in the trimeter and the tetrameter. The inversion is also shown in her perspective. Dickinson appears to be mocking her prior self: “For only Gossamer, my Gown— My— Tippet— only Tulle—” It appears that Death, however, is omnipresent, having been with the narrator before. This quatrain is meant to be humbling; all the petty worries of life are gone in an instant to Death, and to the soul after death. Perhaps it is clear here that what the narrator calls Death, we may call God.

“We paused before a House that seemed

A Swelling of the Ground –

The Roof was scarcely visible –

The Cornice – in the Ground –”

A cornice is an ornate lining between the roof of a house and its wall. This house is either comically small, or more likely, sunk into the ground. This quatrain is one of the most cryptic, but it appears to show a once ornate house with a cornice sink into the ground and into obscurity. From the perspective of Death, which sees no time, everything in the world, even the tallest and greatest buildings, will eventually sink into the ground and be buried.

“Since then – 'tis Centuries – and yet

Feels shorter than the Day

I first surmised the Horses' Heads

Were toward Eternity –”

The first lines: “Since then – 'tis Centuries – and yet Feels shorter than the Day,” say what was the theme throughout the poem; there is an eternity after death, which knows nothing of time. Dickinson’s idea of the world of the dead however, ends oddly. She uses the word “surmise” to describe her belief that the carriage would run for all eternity, suggesting that she does not know why that might be so except through her intuition.

So what should the reader take away? Life is short, the petty things in it will be forgotten in time, and death is not to be feared. Rather, it is to be seen as a place where time is meaningless on the endless journey into the horizon of eternity.