Emily Dickinson's portrayal of death in 'Because I could not stop for Death'

Running head: ENGLISH ASSIGNMENT
English Assignment
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1ENGLISH ASSIGNMENT
The world around us is a beautiful amalgamation of the various diverse architectural
designs as well as patterns which is seldom noticed by the inhabitants of this world (Griffith,
2015). Emily Dickinson is one of the rare few literary geniuses who sought to portray this
beauty in her poetical works (Homans, 2014). It is noticed that all her major literary works
use various symbolisms as well as metaphors from the world of art and the world around her
(Griffith, 2015). People generally choose to see the ugliness as well as mundane realties of
the present world and therefore they focus on such issues in their works. However, the works
of Dickinson are redolent with the beauties of her native America (Homans, 2014).
In her poem “Because I could not stop for Death”, Emily Dickinson uses the natural
surroundings of her native America to portray the theme of death and the journey from this
life to the afterlife (Griffith, 2015). In this poem, Death is present as a chivalrous gentleman
who takes his lady on a chariot ride around the natural surroundings (Homans, 2014). It is to
be noted that since the traditional times death has been presented as a counterpart of sleep and
life itself is given the attribute of a dream, as found in the famous lines of William
Shakespeare from the play Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark,
“To die, to sleep -
To sleep, perchance to dream - ay, there's the rub,
For in this sleep of death what dreams may come...”
It is to be noted that in the first stanza, the speaker tells us about her merry journey
with the gentleman in the past tense, hinting that it had probably happened yesterday only
(Griffith, 2015). However, at the end of the poem the readers find out that the journey had
actually happened a long time back probably hundreds of year back, at the same time
realizing that she is heading towards Eternity (Griffith, 2015). The tone of the first stanza