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How Did Emily Dickinson Use Personification In Because I Could Not Stop For Death

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Emily Dickinson, one of America's greatest and most original poets of all time, wrote the poem,"Because I Could Not Stop For Death." Dickinson has been known for her unique style of writing and being a recluse for most of her life. She chose to write about the topic Death because she experienced great isolation, loss, and reclusion from her family who did not understand her. This poem is about to speaker's journey to the inevitable death. She uses many techniques through out the poem that each have great meaning. Dickinson uses personification, symbolism, and imagery to convey the journey to accept death. Dickinson uses personification through out the poem to give human attributes to Death. She starts off her poem with ,"Because I could not stop for Death he kindly stopped for me." (lines 1 & 2) This is one of the many examples of personification because Death cannot actually stop. Another example of personification is when she writes, "The carriage held but just ourselves and Immortality." ( lines 3 & 4) This gives human characteristics to a non-human object because the carriage did not actually hold the speaker. "A swelling of the ground," ( line 18) is another personification example. This is personification because …show more content…

She uses symbolism to tell the different times of the day and how the speaker is on their journey. For example, the poem says,"We passed the school where children played." ( line 9) This symbolizes the morning of life and energy because of the kids. The grain is another major symbol. Dickinson wrote," We passed the fields of gazing grain." ( line 11) This is symbolism because it represents the midday of life and the working years. A final example of symbolism is in the quote, "We passed the setting sun." ( line 12) This symbolizes the end of the day, the evening of life, and the death of life. Overall, symbolism plays a major role in the speakers

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Whitman and Dickinson share the theme of death in their work, while Whitman decides to speak of death in a more realistic point of view, Dickinson speaks of the theme in a more conceptual one. In Whitman’s poems, he likes to have a more empathic view of individuals and their ways of living. For example, in Whitman’s “Song of Myself”, the poet talks about not just of himself, but all human beings, and of how mankind works into the world and the life of it. Even though the poem mostly talks about life and the happiness of it, Whitman describes also that life itself has its ending, and that is the theme of death. For Dickinson, she is the complete opposite of happiness.

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Emily Dicknson is an American poet that her poems were writtin not for published, in addition there are unreliable information saying that she had mental illness. In her poem ‘’Because I could not stop for Death’’ a four line six stanza which revolves around a women that is waiting for death to take her, in fact the poet portrys the death as a person who takes her in to the journy of life. The general argument Dicknsons made in ‘’Because I could not stop for Death'' is about smooth death more specifically the poet gave the quality of human to death that can come and take a person in to a ride before reaching the grave, also people should not be fear of death. Line (2)(3) The first stanza Dicknson presonfise the death as a human that can come and pick her for a journey to assert that death is a certain, and facing it does not hurt, also the

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When Dickinson was young she thought of death as a kind, peaceful gentleman. She elaborates on this idea in her poem “Because I could not Stop for Death”, “Because I could not stop for Death/ He kindly stopped for me/ We slowly drove - He knew no haste,” Emily Dickinson uses the personification of Death in a way that bears resemblance to a classy, peaceful gentleman who is willing to slowly guide and patiently wait for a lady. Her wording also gives the connotation that she is young and in love with this gentle Death. This idea abruptly turns into hatred when she loses her parents.

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Both Dickinson and Frost also share symbolism and imagery that is associated with death throughout their poems, however, the use to symbols and imagery are different in correspondence to how each of the poets conceive the prospect of death. In “Because I Could Not Stop For Death”, the speaker is so preoccupied with living that she fails to realize that her life is near its end. Therefore, Death, depicted as a gentleman, must "kindly" stop for her. But before she reaches her burial or grave, the speaker watches the scenery outside the carriage, as they pass through stages of the her childhood and adolescence, where she witnesses “the School, where Children strove, At Recess – in the Ring – We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain –”; then finally

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Starting right off, Emily Dickinson wrote a poem called “Because I could not stop for death.” This poem seems to discuss the pathway one will take when they are dead. Among this path you will meet Death. The way Emily Dickinson describes him is very interesting. She calls Death kind, almost like he is a caring being.

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In her poems, she presented the idea of death with much ease and comfort. She saw death as a stepping stone to the afterlife, not the end. In her famous poem “Because I Could Not Stop For Death,” Dickinson's use of peaceful imagery, comforting metaphors, and personification to describe immortality proves that death should not be feared and that it is a natural part of human life. The Imagery used in “Because I Could Not Stop For Death” welcomes

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To be more specific, Dickinson shows varied opinions about the subject of death (Dickinson et al. 125-126). For example, in the poem “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” she personifies death as a person who kindly stopped to take her on a ride, “Because I could not stop for Death – / He kindly stopped for me –/ The Carriage held but just Ourselves – / And Immortality” (1-4). This portrays the theme of death being something people should not be afraid of for it is something everyone has to go through eventually. However, in the poem “I Measure Every Grief I Meet” Dickinson shows to be having a hard time dealing with the grief death brings along with it.

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The use in imagery was used throughout the entire poem. The use of words like “recess/ring, setting/sun, gazing” etc. imagery was used so that the reader can put themselves in her shoes. She wanted the reader to feel content with death and not fear it. Imagery was used in all stanzas which helped understand what Dickinson wanted to depict.

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When Dickinson’s mother’s health began to suffer, she began to spend more and more time at her family’s house, which gave her more time to write poetry. Therefore, most of her poems were dark, and depressing. For example, the poem “Because I Could Not Stop For Death” reflects on death in a causal tone, she is looking back upon how life had been before and how death came and brought tension to her life. She used carriages as a metaphor of life, and that eternity is the

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In “Because I Could Not Stop For Death”, Emily Dickinson uses imagery and symbols to establish the cycle of life and uses examples to establish the inevitability of death. This poem describes the speaker’s journey to the afterlife with death. Dickinson uses distinct images, such as a sunset, the horses’ heads, and the carriage ride to establish the cycle of life after death. Dickinson artfully uses symbols such as a child, a field of grain, and a sunset to establish the cycle of life and its different stages. Dickinson utilizes the example of the busyness of the speaker and the death of the sun to establish the inevitability of death.

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“Because I could not stop for death” is one of the prolific Emily Dickinson’s most discussed poems. It offers a morbid proclivity displayed in many, if not most, of her work; the difference here being that, though those works discussed death and dying to great extents, none dealt with the idea of the journey of the soul in such an explicit way. Dickinson lived a notoriously secluded life , though this was not forced upon her, nor a result of personal trauma. (Gabler-Hoover and Sattlemeyer, 884) This lack of social contact could enhance an innate fascination with mortality, especially one’s own.

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In “Because I could not stop for Death –,“ she embodies death, and introduces the process of dying as the simple realization that there is eternal life, and a heaven after one’s journey of life has ended. (A Short Analysis of Emily Dickinson's 'Because I Could Not Stop for Death'.) Throughout Emily’s

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