Because i Could Not Stop for Death critical appreciation?

Answer 1

Type your answer here... In the poem named "Because I Could Not Stop for Death," Emily Dickinson illustrated her outlook on the relationship between death and eternity. What was special about Dickinson's poem that she spoke from the point of view of a dead person, but did not reveal the lyric self's beforehand passing away until the last line where she mentioned the pursuing of eternity as an outcome of this verse. "It is a poem of departure from life, an intensely conscious leave-taking. In so far it concentrates on the life that is being left behind, it is wholly successful" (Cameron 33). Another fact made Dickinson's poem unique was that the unusual personification of and description about death. Generally speaking, death gave an impression of fear and pain, and it was believed to be a dreadful event of all the negatives. However, in "Because I Could Not Stop for Death", Dickinson personified Death as a courteous gentle man who treated the lyric self a gratifying trip accompanied by Immortality. Through the lyric self's chariot ride with Death and Immortality, the poet fulfilled her wondering of the afterlife and the experience of passing away.

"She［Emily Dickinson］ transformed the female 'victim,' not into a willing or even passionate love of Death, but into a avoid witness/participant in the mysterious transition from life to death, and from human time to eternity. The speaker never expresses any direction emotion about her abduction; indeed, she never calls it that. She seems to experience neither fear nor pain. On the other hand, there is no indication that she is enamored of Death . . . What does draw her powerfully in the journey, which she observes and reports in scrupulous detail. The poem is her vehicle for exploring the question that obsessed her imagination 'What does it feel like to die?' " (Duchac 57, 58)

At the first line of stanza one, the lyric self was in a hurry that she did not have time to stop for Death, which implied that in this world, people rushed to live on their lives all the time, busying seeking all kinds of life qualities such as fame, money, business, health, family, affairs and relationships. Perhaps, because the crowd were too concentrated on pursuing what they desired, they had never thought death might descend upon them in a sudden, so their accomplishments in vain. Soon Dickinson wrote on about Death's coming to wait for the lyric self out of good manners-no matter how hard we tried to hold on to this world, the time to pass away would come eventually, and we had no choice but to leg go of life. Putting away her labor and leisure, the lyric self received Death's invitation to a carriage ride in order to repay him for his etiquette and gentleness. Dickinson lived in nineteenth century when a married lady was not allowed to ride along with any man in a carriage without a chaperon. As a result, Immortality, another personification made by Dickinson, took the role of the lyric self's chaperon and accompanied her all the way through her journey. Here the poet insinuated that going with Death equaled being in an immortal state. In other words, bowing to death opened the door toward everlasting life. Nevertheless, accepting the hands of Death was only a guarantee of possessing immortality, not a promise of anything concerned the lyric self's further trip. How her journey was going to be like? What would she discover and attain in the end? So far, answers to these questions were still unknown to the lyric self, neither to readers, so the poet went on to bring the further events to light.

In the second stanza, Dickinson indicated that no haste was involved in the lyric self's carriage ride with Death. The poet supposed that compared to the present world, the afterlife was much tranquiller because the labor and leisure of life had been eliminated. "Labor and leisure" referred to something such as responsibilities, joys and sorrows came from human experiences; in Dickinson's view, "labor and leisure" was the so called burden of life from which people could not escape until the day they passed away. Therefore, based on this concept, death does not meant lost and misery, instate, it meant rest and release from ups and downs of life. For Death's kindness, the lyric self was willing to abandon what composed her past-labor and leisure. "Death's carrying her away is presented as a 'civility,' an act of politeness. And she responses with equal good manners, putting away her labor and her leisure, too, that is, the whole of her life" (Dunchac 58).

As the carriage ride continued in stanza three, there came the lyric self's recapitulation of life (Chase 250). The school children competing in a ring game was a symbol of her youth, when she lived their days through the cycle of striving and resting, and worked hard on learning to carry out her life burdens. The gazing grain which was fully ripe and ready for harvest signified her maturity in the prime of her life. Then she passed the setting sun which presented her old age. In both the third and the fourth stanza, the repetition of the word "pass" gradually strengthen the estrangement between the lyric self and the lively snatches of life ( Melani ).

"But with the pivotal line of stanza 4, any clear spatial and temporal orientation vanishes; poem and carriage swerve off in an unexpected manner. Had the carriage passed the sunset, its direction-beyond the earthly life-would have been clear. But the line 'Or rather-He passed Us' gives no clear sense of the carriage's movement and direction. It is as if the carriage and its passengers are frozen in time. The sun appears to abandon the carriage-as reflected in the increasing coldness that envelops the speaker." (Dunchac 58).

According to Dunchac's opinion above, stanza four was an important turning point of the verse. As the speaking tone of voice dropped from a glad indicative mood to a grim and dull mood, the lyric self recognized that it was the sun and all the landscape that passed her rather than she passed them. The Wheel of Time moving on, and the world passed by, but the lyric self was left behind-she was abandoned by this world, or rather, she was not even part of this world. Also, after sunset, there would be dusky night suggesting darkness and isolation; it was a contrast to the previous stanzas of delight and warmth (Melani ). Recognizing her own existence in a strange and unreal state, the lyric felt shock and quivered not only because of the coldness, but also her uncertainness about her presence (Wifer ). At line three and four, the poet illustrated the reason of her chill: she was wearing only gossamer and a tulle tippet. In nineteenth century, gossamer was the delicate filmy material people wore when they died. A tippet was a cape that usually made of fur; however, this one was made of tulle, the fine silk netting piece that used to make veils or gowns. It was very likely that what she actually dressed in was a shroud, and this provided us a hint that the lyric self might have already died.

Dickinson confirmed readers with the lyric self's death in stanza five when the carriage paused in front of a swelling-ground-liked house. Something wear about this house was that its roof nearly invisible and its cornice in the ground-in fact, this was a tomb, not a house. The lyric self eventually realized her own death many years ago. From this moment, she perceived the truth that she had entered an afterlife. Soon in the fifth stanza, she found herself in a different order of time of which she felt centuries were shorter than a single day. From the first to the fourth stanza, the lyric self did not thought herself an outsider to the world, neither did she knew her destination of the ride. However, after she understood and accepted her beforehand passing away, abruptly she was aware of her moving toward eternity.

The theme I received from "Because I Could Not Stop for Death" was the acceptance of death. In my point of view, the lyric self entered an afterlife when Death took her away, and her afterlife was part of eternity, which she experienced without noticing and felt without feeling because she still clung on her busy earthly life that she did not even know she was already dead. Through the journey, the more she learned to let go of her past by putting away "labor and leisure" and watching the flash back of life without trying to grab anything, the more she observed that she was in eternity. Finally, she fully accepted her death and was not wandering blindly in afterlife anymore. Informing we readers about her first knowing where the Horse's Head toward to, the lyric self found eternity an endless broad way forward, and found it empty, probably. But this did not matter, for she was not lost any more. The afterlife, as a matter of fact, included in eternity, was a new beginning to her. Therefore I concluded that in this poem, death did not lead to eternity, instead, it led to understanding of eternity.

"In the poem, death arrived to one whenever it feels like it. It is a cycle of life. Some people are so afraid to die that they never being to life. The poem tells of how Death comes one day to Dickinson and took her away in a carriage. In the poem it tells how they both pass the beautiful things in life without stopping. When the carriage finally did stop, it came in front of the demented house that was all withered away from pain . . . ［The carriage ride］is a metaphor for the way people came against fighting death. . . There are some people who want to stop and see children play. Happiness is not a reward-it is a consequence. Suffering is not a punishment, it is a result. To Dickinson, life is not lost by dying; life to her is lost minute by minute, day by dragging day, in all the thousand small uncaring ways. . . You should not take life too seriously, or you will not even get out of it alive." (Lopez )

There were some questions for us to consider in order to examine how Emily Dickinson presented her most important theme about life and death in an effective way by the poem "Because I Could Not Stop for Death": What kind of audience was Dickinson addressing? What wereDickinson's assumptions? How well did Dickinson accomplish her purpose?

The poet's delicate writing work concerned philosophy, so the rank of reader's age varied from teenagers who had at lest high school education and reading skills that capable to understand her image-rich verse, to people who were at their last, preparing for the upcoming death. Also, gender and racial background of readers did not matter, because this was a verse helping people build a calm attitude to face any unknowing events as well to accept them, particularly to those who focused on their presence and never thought about there could be sudden changes in life. Dickinson assumed that she could convince readers with her ideas in a story-telling way. She made up a special personification of death to grab audience's attention, and she used a meaningful metaphor, the trip of searching for self-assurance in afterlife. Also, in the new criticism view, the school children, the gazing grain and the setting sun mentioned as symbols of her three life phrases were significant and well-used. To sum up, Dickinson successfully drew readers to her topic by this heart-charming verse with a variety of figures of speech. Nevertheless, she did not presented any personal experiences or real evidences that could convince people with the concept that it was better to accept destiny rather than tried to fight it back.