Because I Could Not Stop for Death

Dickinson personifies two abstract concepts in this poem: Death appears as a man driving a carriage, while Immortality appears as a fellow traveler riding in the carriage next to the speaker. Dickinson gives Death several surprising personality traits that subvert the punitive and terrifying imagery associated with dying in Christianity. Death does not threaten or scare the speaker. Instead, he is a gentle and polite driver who “kindly stopped” (Line 2) for the speaker; the speaker’s calm at leaving the trappings of life comes from Death’s “Civility” (Line 8).

Dickinson depicts the carriage ride with a peaceful and somewhat detached tone. The detachment makes sense, since this carriage ride represents her death and subsequent journey through time and the afterlife—unable to do much beyond note the passing scenery, the speaker perceives images denoting the passage of time, such as children at play, a growing harvest, and the setting sun—traditional symbols of a full human life. The speaker’s inability to stop the carriage’s progress becomes more pronounced between the third and fourth stanzas, where she gives up the illusion that she is the one moving. The speaker at first describes passing the sun, but then realizes that it is the sun that is passing her: “We passed the Setting Sun – /Or rather – He passed Us –” (Lines 8-9).

In the fourth stanza, the tone of the poem becomes more uncertain. The sun has set, and the temperature drops, as Dickinson indicates with “The Dews drew quivering and Chill —” (Line 14) and a new awareness of her clothing’s thin material. As we realize in the fifth stanza, the speaker has been traveling towards “a House” (Line 17) that is in fact the speaker’s grave. The visual imagery includes a mound of dirt atop the fresh grave, as well as the gravestone, which she calls “The Cornice — in the Ground —” (Line 20). This fact retroactively explains the speaker’s strange clothing, which is actually a funeral shroud.

The sixth and final stanza reveals that the speaker has lived hundreds of years since she boarded Death’s carriage. This stanza also introduces the use of present-tense verbs, whereas the previous five stanzas used the past tense. This time has passed swiftly—perhaps even pleasurably—in contrast to the slow progress of the carriage at the beginning of the poem. With its dreamlike imagery and somewhat hopeful tone, this poem presents a vision of death that is at once mystical and matter-of-fact. The speaker’s As she notes in the final two lines, “the Horses’ Heads / Were toward Eternity —” (Lines 23-24).