Personification Of Death

The poem “Because I could not stop for Death”, written by Emily Dickinson, talks about how she isn’t afraid of Death and personifies it as a person. She incorporates her era of the time period my adding the realism of death and gives brief descriptions of her experience with Death. The poem briefly speaks about how that in the experience of death there is no sense of time which is why she was unaware that time has gone by since the day of her death. The poem was made in 1890 which made Death seem like a gentle man in a carriage that shows the path for the resting place for the dead. The literary devices used in this poem are what bring this poem together because of the way that they are used to describe her experience with Death and immortality

Emily Dickenson describes death and immortality by capitalizing the first letter of the word which is only used when mentioning a name of a person, place, or thing. She expresses that she has no fear toward Death and Immortality. She would rather welcome them and live on with her life than to be afraid and live her life waiting for death. She describes Death as a kind and peaceful person that is helping her realize her death as he guides her to the house where the “swelling in the ground” only shows the roof of the house which symbolizes her tombstone. Dickinson also shows that there is no sense of time during death. This is shown when Death reveals that time has gone by since the time of her death and time does not pass the same way that the living world does. Her use in personification shows that death isn’t as dark and terrifying as it is made out to

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. When she writes about how Death and Immortality “kindly stop” for her, she describes a slow drive passed different sceneries. Not only does it explain that there is no concept of time during death but it gives a lot of brief visual and onomatopoeic words that bring imagery to the reader mind. Her use in alliteration was one of the main literary devices that brought the greatest amount of imagery to the poem. Her use in personification also had a great affect in her imagery. Without it, the reader wouldn’t be able to know how or why she felt content with death and immortality. For example, the “swelling in the ground” represents her grave that she was driven too by a carriage that was “held by themselves” which represents her floating ghost. The “gazing/grain” and “setting/sun” show that she had been roaming around a country side and as the felt the “quivering chill” she was beginning to realize that she had been dead for some time. The “roof” of the barely visible house represented her tombstone as she got closer and closer to the “swelling in the