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Allen Curnow's Time And Because I Could Not Stop For Time

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Allen Curnow’s ‘Time’ and Emily Dickinson’s ‘Because I Could Not Stop For Death’ show the similar themes of the passing of time and its implications. The two poems both discuss events that occur throughout an average life (childhood, work, marriage and death are some examples), however, there is a stark contrast between the finality of ‘Because I Could Not Stop For Death’ and the mundaneness of ‘Time’.
The poem ‘Time’ is a tribute to the passing of time and how much humans have grown to obsess over it. The poem is an extended metaphor, using the repetition of “I am” to instigate that the voice is Time itself. There is a capitalisation of ‘Time’ because in this context, the use of this effect suggests personification. This use of repetition combined with a similar structure for most of the stanzas: three lines, with enjambment on the third, beginning with “I am”; reinforce the connection to time, routine and thus, the mundane tone of the events.
Curnow’s ‘Time’ features a rhyme, that resembles the ticking of the second hand, found at the end of each line of the first four stanzas: “pines”, “lines” and “signs”. This technique appeals to the auditory senses of the audience and subtly emphasises the passing of time between the beginning and the ending of the poem. The aforementioned statement about the passing of time is also echoed and shown in the use of two tenses throughout the poem- past and present. Curnow brings attention to this to show the subconscious need to know the

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