38 pages • 1 hour read
Emily DickinsonBecause I Could Not Stop for Death
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1890A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Symbols & Motifs
The Carriage
The poetic speaker of “Because I could not stop for Death” describes a mysterious carriage ride she takes one day. The horses move slowly at first as “Death” (Line 1) drives and the speaker sits with “Immortality” (Line 4). As Dickinson reveals, the carriage’s destination is both the speaker’s grave and eternity. Therefore, the carriage has two meanings. Literally, this dreamy carriage ride is a poetic description of a hearse taking a coffin to its final resting place. More figuratively, the carriage symbolizes the soul’s journey through time after death as well as the journey of life during an individual’s time on earth.
That the other passenger in the carriage is “Immortality” (Line 4) reveals Dickinson’s curiosity about the afterlife despite her ambivalence towards the eternal life and salvation that organized religion promises. In the context of this poem, “Immortality” (Line 4) rides towards “Eternity” (Line 24) with the speaker of the poem, but the speaker gives no indication of where immortality sits within the carriage or if immortality, like death, takes a human form. The only clue that suggests immortality is personified is present in the collective pronoun “Ourselves” (Line 3). This small mention offers the reader a hint about the speaker’s interest in immortality, but it invites more questions about the speaker’s point of view than answers.
Death
Emily Dickinson personifies death as a character in “Because I could not stop for Death.” The speaker boards a carriage with “Death” (Line 1) as a driver, whom she describes as a courteous and unhurried man. However, the first two lines of the poem, as well as Death’s position in the driver’s seat, indicate that he has control over what happens to the speaker. This poem’s imagery, from the speaker’s spiderweb-like dress to the “House” (Line 17) that is actually a grave, also revolves around death.
The motif of death as a gothic convention gives the reader insight into the speaker’s preoccupation with death and the afterlife. The eerie quality of the image of the carriage driver and his horses as well as the mysterious underground dwelling creates a foreboding atmosphere that challenges the ethereal notions of the afterlife espoused by the Christian church and its believers.
The Setting Sun
In western literature, sunrise is often used as a symbol for renewal and new beginnings, while sunset signifies endings. At the end of the third stanza, the speaker of the poem, accompanied by Death, the carriage driver, passes “the setting sun” (Line 12), and then corrects the thought so that the next line reads: “Or rather – He passed Us –” (Line 13). This self-correction draws attention to the image of the sunset as a symbol of old age and the time in life when vital energy wanes. As well, the correction reveals that the speaker of the poem feels less agency over their own life as they approach death; they can no longer pass the sunset, as the sunset now passes them and delivers them to the next stage of her existence: “toward Eternity” (Line 24).
As soon as the sunset passes the speaker by, a coldness falls on the speaker, indicating the moment in time at which their life ends, and they feel a chill pass through them as they notice that their clothes have taken the form of a death shroud. The speed with which this change happens, over the course of two lines, emphasizes the sudden nature of death; at one moment, a person is living and breathing, but the next could bring an end to life.
The Horses
The image of the horses in the final stanza invites the reader to remember the carriage in which the speaker is traveling as well as the speaker’s destination. The length and the shape of the horses’ heads emphasize the forward movement of the carriage, as the shape of a long horse’s head, especially when it is walking or running, appears as if it is pointing the way for the passengers of the carriage.
At the end of the poem, the speaker realizes that “the Horses’ Heads / Were toward Eternity” (Lines 23-24), which suggests that the horses were heading in the direction of death and eternal rest for the entirety of the poem. Because the speaker personifies death as a carriage driver, the reader can imagine the speaker’s experience of death as an introduction to a person; within the context of an interpersonal exchange, it makes sense that the speaker of the poem does not understand the finality of Death’s appearance, until the horses indicate the direction of travel with their heads.
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By Emily Dickinson
