Because I could not stop for Death - Kate Chopin

By: Carlotta Dillon

In the poem “Because I could not stop for Death”, Emily Dickinson uses literary techniques, such as imagery and em dashes, to illustrate three stages in a journey through life: childhood, adulthood, and retirement. The poem follows death and the author in a carriage as they observe each stage of life, giving an outsider's view to relatable experiences, such as recess or working hard at a job.

The journey through the day conveys the human life process through its several stops, beginning at school. The carriage arrives at the school as the author observes, “where Children strove At Recess – in the Ring –.” The description creates the imagery of children being free and playing in the ring during their break time. The em dashes are used to create separation in the reader's experience to mimic the feeling of the carriage ride throughout the passage, specifically how the windows create small gaps in the scenery as the carriage moves. This technique of mimicking the obstacles of viewing incorporates the reader into the ride in order to activate pathos in the reader due to the nostalgia of childhood institutions. The quote also describes a ring, a common tool in several childhood games, which signifies unity, due to its circular shape and intertwined hands. This ring imagery is used to convey the sense of similarity present in childhood, which is often lost as social barriers such as race, gender, or sexuality become more apparent and substantial to people’s views. The unification of the ring represents being a kid and having a stress-free life, being able to play freely with everyone included, as the author details the characteristics of childhood life.

The carriage, with death and the author in tow, next stops at a field of grain, where the field and sun imagery express the toil of a full-time job in adulthood. While the carriage passes the fields, the description, “We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain – We passed the Setting Sun –” explains the scenery. The imagery of the fields of grain represents the work put into making the harvest viable, showing the next stage of life, adulthood. Adulthood focuses on the taxing work put in to provide and support yourself or your family during this time through the imagery of farmwork, a notoriously difficult and burdensome labor. The sun portrays the heat and exhaustion of work to the reader, and then how a hard day’s labor is finished with the setting of the sun. The image of the sun and fields represents the tolling burden taken during adulthood.

The last stage of life is displayed in the penultimate stanza of this poem through the description of the run-down house. On the last stop of their journey, Death and the author pause at an old and abandoned house, describing it as, “A Swelling of the Ground – The Roof was scarcely visible – The Cornice – in the Ground.” The description of the broken roof and covered-up modeling is imagery for the atrophy of the cognitive function and muscles in the later years of life for humans. Swelling ground implies unstable foundations and, in this case, represents how bones weaken and deteriorate with age. The roof becoming less visible directly relates to the loss of melanin in the skin, causing the skin to become translucent and more fragile. The cornice in the ground represents the previous intellect being covered up with the mental fatigue and forgetfulness common in the elderly. The house, on a larger scale, represents how the body declines in physical and mental capacity as it grows in age. These descriptions show the conclusion of the human life cycle as the journey comes to a close.

Emily Dickinson uses em dashes and repetition to transform a carriage ride into a journey through the human life cycle. She illustrates childhood freedom, adulthood labor, and elderly decline through imagery of simple scenes that the reader can relate to, incorporating them into the story.