• Bagus Notoagung

• Ridwan Alfian Gustomo

• Nur Cholis

• Bayu Hardiansyah

Because I could not stop for Death—

He kindly stopped for me—

The Carriage held but just Ourselves—

And Immortality.

We slowly drove—He knew no haste

And I had put away

My labor and my leisure too,

For His Civility—

We passed the School, where Children strove

At Recess—in the Ring

We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain—

We passed the Setting Sun—

Or rather—He passed Us—

The Dews drew quivering and chill—

For only Gossamer, my Gown—

My Tippet—only Tulle—

We paused before a House that seemed

A Swelling of the Ground—

The Roof was scarcely visible—

The Cornice—in the Ground—

Since then—'tis Centuries—and yet

Feels shorter than the Day

I first surmised the Horses' Heads

Were toward Eternity—

Summary of the poem

O Meaning:

O portrays the feeling of acceptance towards

death.

O The poem itself not only explains the loss of

life, but also the road to death and the

destination the speaker is taken to.

O The poem ends with the speaker arriving to

their final destination that is assumed to be

an afterlife.

Figurative language

Personification: He kindly stopped for me (line 2). He refers

to a “death” which describes in line 1.

Simile: Feels shorter than the day (line 22). Compares

“this centuries” with “the day” which is similar, even

shorter.

“Because I could not stop for Death” (line 1) the

speaker is simply too busy with everyday life to die,

and so Death himself comes to take the woman.

“Death” is depicted as a gentlemanly suitor who

“kindly” (line 2) calls upon her to ride in the carriage

with him. This makes the unusual perspective where

usually death is described as something scary.

Symbol and Imagery

“Setting Sun” (line 12) in the West is often a symbol of

an end of some kind; in this case, it may signify the

end of the woman’s life.

“paused” in “We paused before a house that

seemed” (line 17). It means that she is pausing before

the burial site and not halting there. It is implied that

the woman’s grave (a conventional symbol for death)

is not a permanent stop. This momentary pause may

signify there is still life even after dying—the tomb may

not be the ultimate end.

*Repetition

We passed the school where children played

At wrestling in a ring;

We passed the fields of gazing grain,

We passed the setting sun.

As in "Because I could not stop for death," Dickinson uses

repetition to enhance the flow of her poems and for

emphasis. Here, she repeats the phrase "we passed" to

describe the journey that she made with death.

Dickinson's mother had worsened and developed neuralgia, a

painful condition that causes the sufferer to feel stabs of pain in the face. On November 13, 1882, Emily Norcross Dickinson died.

Helen Fiske Jackson, her old school friend died. It had an emotionally draining five years for Dickinson, and her health suffered as a result. Around this time, though, a Boston publisher began inquiring after Dickinson's poetry. Helen Fiske Jackson had told the publisher of to Dickinson's talent. Dickinson sent the publisher six poems in response to his inquiries, all of which dealt with nature in theme and imagery. The publisher decided to reject the poems for publication. This was a tremendous disappointment for Dickinson, and worsened the trauma of the death of her mother and the unexpected passing of her beloved nephew. She slowly began to lose interest in composition.

• Historical Approach

Biographical approach

The poem may describe her lifetime when she was about to death.

She probably think that a death is not necessarily faced with fear.