Emily Dickinson Alliteration

“Because I could not stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson is a poem from the civil war time period. Dickinson has a habit of capitalizing important words in her poems when she wants to emphasize them and although she uses musical devices, her poems don’t have any set rhyme. This poem is a lyrical poem and consists of six stanzas and twenty-four lines. The poem starts with the image of a personified death and immortality in the first stanza: “The Carriage held but just Ourselves—And Immortality.” (3-4). Painting a picture of Death inviting Dickinson onto the carriage which is also a metaphor of her life. She describes him as being civil, “For His Civility” (8), as he waits for her death. The poem shows Emily taking a ride through her life with

In the third stanza, she uses the repetition to give the beginning of her lines emphasis: “We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain— We passed the Setting Sun” (11-12). Furthermore, “Gazing Grain” and “Setting Sun” are alliterations which give the lines a more lyrical tone. The two metaphors in poem are particularly interesting because they are direct contrasts of each other; the “Carriage” represents her life while the “Swelling of the Ground” represents her death. This isn’t the only time she gave two characteristics to one subject: “The Dews drew quivering and chill” (14). The “Dews drew” is an alliteration and is then personified with “quivering and chill”. Towards the end of the poem, she uses a hyperbole to exaggerate the length of her lifetime: “’tis Centuries—and yet Feels shorter than the Day” (21). The hyperbole resonates with the next line to get the reader thinking of the momentary existence of humans. Despite including death as the main theme, Dickinson’s poem has a calm and blissful tone. This is a good poem because of its general topic, making it very easy to relate to. The message that this poem conveys is that death is with you at all times and he is patient and will wait with you for the rest of your life. The last few lines of the poem makes the reader reflect on how brief their existence