Because I could not stop for Death by Emily Dickinson

In this poem, Dickinson used a popular theme, death, for her poem. She did a good job in describing death; the poem shows you that death is horrible but can also be peaceful. She didn’t waste anytime on getting to her point in the poem, she lets us know the poem is going to talk about death at the very beginning.

In the first stanza, she capitalized “Carriage,” “Ourselves,” and “Immortality.” We can probably imply that they have a special mean to the writer, For example, I think “Ourselves” on the third line represents death and herself.

In the second stanza, she states that “We slowly drove, we knew no haste;” this shows us how death is a kind gentleman who gives his passenger a pleasant ride. I think it’s an interesting way to describe and personify death as a gentleman suitor who drives a horse-drawn carriage. Also, it is a way to say that death didn’t hurry.

In the third stanza, she describes the view that they are riding past. They see children playing in the playground during recess. I am guessing that these views are coming from her own memory, because many say that people tend to think of important events that happened in their lives when they are close to death.

In the fourth stanza, she states “ He passed us;” which represents the sun passing them. The sun passes her because of the sunset, which means the the sunshine and warmth is leaving. When the sun falls below the horizon, it also shows the night is coming; darkness and cold is the symbol of night. Obviously, she is talking about death; the cold and darkness are always used to refer to death.

The final line of the poem reads“I first surmised the Horses’ Heads
Were toward Eternity –” It seems to recall the horse-drawn carriage mentioned previously. It shows us that they are not regular horses, It refers to her whole life, she was bringing out her life to us through the horses.