The Theme Of Because I Could Not Stop For Death

Emily Dickison’s poems “This World Is Not Conclusion” and “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” both focus on the disastrous idea of death. Although these poems focus on the same idea, they view it differently. This contrast in the idea is evident when comparing the poems' content and themes about death, their distinction of figurative language, and their structure. With these components, the reader can infer that Dickison’s poems have similar ideas but have different perspectives. Emily Dickison explores the concept of death in these poems by viewing the afterlife of death as relating to faith and uncertainty in “This World Is Not Conclusion” and focuses on the cycle of life and the inevitability of death in “Because I Could Not Stop for

At the beginning of “This World Is Not Conclusion”, Dickison expresses that there is an afterlife period after death and that “This World Is Not Conclusion. A species stands beyond” (Dickison 501). This quote exclaims that death is not the end of everything and that there are still things occurring in the afterlife. Additionally, this poem connects the afterlife with uncertainty and describes this period as something that “beckons, and it baffles / Philosophy—don’t know” and “Faith slips / and laughs, and rallies” (Dickison 501). This text describes this period after death as something difficult to truly understand and that we shouldn’t put our entire faith in predicting what occurs in this period. Also, the second embedded quote expresses that one cannot be truly confident in fully understanding the afterlife because it personifies faith as untrustworthy. At the beginning of “Because I Could Not Stop For Death”, Dickison describes the speaker as someone who “could not stop for death” (Dickison 712) and personifies death itself by stating that “he kindly stopped for me” (Dickison 712). These pieces of the text show that the speaker

At the beginning of “This World Is Not Conclusion”, Dickinson uses similes to describe what occurs during the afterlife of death as “Invisible, as Music / But positive as Sound” (Dickison 501). This piece of text describes the things happening in the afterlife that are unknown, so one should not put their entire faith on a specific occurrence during the period after death. This description of the mystery of afterlife is accomplished through Dickison’s usage of similes. In addition, the poem connects the questioning of the afterlife by alluding to the “Contempt of Generations And Crucifixion, shown” and the “Strong Hallelujahs roll” (Dickinson 501). These quotes contain allusions to the Bible to state that the questioning of what happens during the afterlife has been occurring for generations and since the crucifixion of Jesus. So, Dickinson’s usage of allusions in the poem adds complexity to the idea of the afterlife after death. At the start of “Because I Could Not Stop For Death”, the author uses personification to give death human qualities when the speaker did not want to pause for Death, so “He kindly stopped for me” (Dickinson 712). Since death cannot literally stop for someone, Dickinson personifies death to make it seem like death is a person as well waiting for the speaker to join him, which adds to the complexity of the poem. As the speaker is reviewing