Because I could not stop for Death
Encyclopedia
"Because I could not stop for Death" is a lyric poem by Emily Dickinson
first published posthumously in Poems: Series 1 in 1890. The poem is about death. Dickinson personifies it as a gentleman caller who takes a leisurely carriage ride with the poet to her grave.
and Thomas Wentworth Higginson
. The poem was published under the title "Chariot". It is composed in six quatrains with the meter alternating between iambic tetrameter
and iambic trimeter
. Stanzas 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 employ end rhyme in their second and fourth lines, but some of these are only close rhyme or eye rhyme
. In the third stanza, there is no end rhyme, but "ring" in line 2 rhymes with "gazing" and "setting" in lines 3 and 4 respectively. Internal rhyme is scattered throughout. Figures of speech
include alliteration
, anaphora
, paradox
, and personification. The poem personifies Death as a gentleman caller who takes a leisurely carriage ride with the poet to her grave.
wrote, "[The poem] exemplifies better than anything else [Dickinson] wrote the special quality of her mind ... If the word great means anything in poetry, this poem is one of the greatest in the English language; it is flawless to the last detail. The rhythm charges with movement the pattern of suspended action back of the poem. Every image is precise and, moreover, not merely beautiful, but inextricably fused with the central idea. Every image extends and intensifies every other ... No poet could have invented the elements of [this poem]; only a great poet could have used them so perfectly. Miss Dickinson was a deep mind writing from a deep culture, and when she came to poetry, she came infallibly.”
as the twelfth song of his song cycle
Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson. And again, by John Adams as the second movement of his choral symphony
Harmonium
, and also set to music by Nicholas J. White as a single movement piece for chorus and chamber orchestra.
Emily Dickinson
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life...
first published posthumously in Poems: Series 1 in 1890. The poem is about death. Dickinson personifies it as a gentleman caller who takes a leisurely carriage ride with the poet to her grave.
Summary
The poem was first published posthumously in 1890 in Poems: Series 1, a collection of Dickinson's poems assembled and edited by her friends Mabel Loomis ToddMabel Loomis Todd
Mabel Loomis Todd or Mabel Loomis was an American editor and writer, and the wife of the astronomer David Peck Todd. She is remembered as the editor of posthumously published editions of Emily Dickinson....
and Thomas Wentworth Higginson
Thomas Wentworth Higginson
Thomas Wentworth Higginson was an American Unitarian minister, author, abolitionist, and soldier. He was active in the American Abolitionism movement during the 1840s and 1850s, identifying himself with disunion and militant abolitionism...
. The poem was published under the title "Chariot". It is composed in six quatrains with the meter alternating between iambic tetrameter
Iambic tetrameter
Iambic tetrameter is a meter in poetry. It refers to a line consisting of four iambic feet. The word "tetrameter" simply means that there are four feet in the line; iambic tetrameter is a line comprising four iambs...
and iambic trimeter
Iambic trimeter
iambic trimeter is a meter of poetry consisting of three iambic units per line.In ancient Greek poetry, iambic trimeter is a quantitative meter, in which a line consisted of three iambic metra and each metron consisted of two iambi...
. Stanzas 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 employ end rhyme in their second and fourth lines, but some of these are only close rhyme or eye rhyme
Eye rhyme
Eye rhyme, also called visual rhyme and sight rhyme, is a similarity in spelling between words that are pronounced differently and hence, not an auditory rhyme...
. In the third stanza, there is no end rhyme, but "ring" in line 2 rhymes with "gazing" and "setting" in lines 3 and 4 respectively. Internal rhyme is scattered throughout. Figures of speech
Figures of Speech
Figures of Speech is a hip hop group consisting of MCs Eve and Jyant. They performed at the Good Life Cafe in the early 1990s and were featured on the Project Blowed compilation....
include alliteration
Alliteration
In language, alliteration refers to the repetition of a particular sound in the first syllables of Three or more words or phrases. Alliteration has historically developed largely through poetry, in which it more narrowly refers to the repetition of a consonant in any syllables that, according to...
, anaphora
Anaphora
In rhetoric, an Anaphora is a rhetorical device that consists of repeating a sequence of words at the beginnings of neighboring clauses, thereby lending them emphasis. In contrast, an epistrophe is repeating words at the clauses' ends. Anaphora is contrasted with cataphora...
, paradox
Paradox
Similar to Circular reasoning, A paradox is a seemingly true statement or group of statements that lead to a contradiction or a situation which seems to defy logic or intuition...
, and personification. The poem personifies Death as a gentleman caller who takes a leisurely carriage ride with the poet to her grave.
Text
Because I could not stop for Death-
He kindly stopped for me-
The Carriage held but just Ourselves-
And Immortality.
5 We slowly drove-He knew no haste
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too,
For His Civility-
We passed the School, where Children strove
10 At Recess-in the Ring-
We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain-
We passed the Setting Sun-
Or rather-He passed Us-
The Dews drew quivering and chill-
15 For only Gossamer, my Gown-
My Tippet-only Tulle-
We paused before a House that seemed
A Swelling of the Ground-
The Roof was scarcely visible-
20 The Cornice-in the Ground-
Since then-'tis Centuries-and yet
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses' Heads
Were toward Eternity-
Critique
In 1936 Allen TateAllen Tate
John Orley Allen Tate was an American poet, essayist, social commentator, and Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1943 to 1944.-Life:...
wrote, "[The poem] exemplifies better than anything else [Dickinson] wrote the special quality of her mind ... If the word great means anything in poetry, this poem is one of the greatest in the English language; it is flawless to the last detail. The rhythm charges with movement the pattern of suspended action back of the poem. Every image is precise and, moreover, not merely beautiful, but inextricably fused with the central idea. Every image extends and intensifies every other ... No poet could have invented the elements of [this poem]; only a great poet could have used them so perfectly. Miss Dickinson was a deep mind writing from a deep culture, and when she came to poetry, she came infallibly.”
Musical settings
The poem has been set to music by Aaron CoplandAaron Copland
Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...
as the twelfth song of his song cycle
Song cycle
A song cycle is a group of songs designed to be performed in a sequence as a single entity. As a rule, all of the songs are by the same composer and often use words from the same poet or lyricist. Unification can be achieved by a narrative or a persona common to the songs, or even, as in Schumann's...
Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson. And again, by John Adams as the second movement of his choral symphony
Choral symphony
A choral symphony is a musical composition for orchestra, choir, sometimes with solo vocalists, which in its internal workings and overall musical architecture adheres broadly to symphonic musical form. The term "choral symphony" in this context was coined by Hector Berlioz when describing his...
Harmonium
Harmonium (John Adams)
Harmonium is a composition for chorus and orchestra that could be considered a choral symphony in all but name, by the American composer John Adams, written in 1980-1981 for the first season of Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, California. The work is based on poetry by John Donne and Emily...
, and also set to music by Nicholas J. White as a single movement piece for chorus and chamber orchestra.