He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.
We slowly drove, he knew no haste5
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility.
We passed the school where children played
Their lessons scarcely done;10
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.
We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,15
The cornice but a mound.
Since then ‘t is centuries; but each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses’ heads
Were toward eternity.20 (Franklin)
The Author
Emily Dickinson became one of America’s most noted poets after her death. The poetry she wrote was mainly about death, grief and love. Her poems offered a different prospective on death and its effects on others. Her poems on love were sad and about lost love. Although she was considered a Lyrical poet, her critics say there was an absence of metre and rhyme. Other critics believe this was her deliberate artistic expression. Her poetry reflects her loneliness and the speakers of her poems generally live in a state of want and sadness (Reeves).
Emily Dickinson (1830 – 1886) was born to a proper New England family in Amherst, Massachusetts (Barnet 444).
She became one of America’s most noted poets after her death. Although she made several attempts to get published, some believe the reason so few were published was because her work was far ahead of its time (Gilson).
The Essay on Valediction Forbidding Mourning Love Poem Donne
Compare and Contrast "Sonnet XVIII" (Shakespeare) with "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" (Donne) in terms of meaning, tone and style. Conclude by saying which you prefer and why. John Donne's "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning," and Shakespeare's "Sonnet XVIII" depict love in extremely different ways. John Donne explores the power of the connection between his, and his lover's souls, whereas ...
After her death her sister, Lavinia discovered she left 1,775 poems, only 7 had been published (Barnet 444).
Most of her poetry was about grief, death and love. The theme of death was unconventional during that time. She often gave death personalities. That was different from the traditional views on death. Her poems offered a different prospective on death and its effects on others.
Dickinson appeared to have a normal childhood and was described as being bright, witty, had many friends and attended parties. She began to withdraw from society in her early 30’s. There were occasions when she would speak to her friends and loved ones from the other side of a door instead of face to face. She may have been what we know now as Agoraphobic. That is the fear of open spaces or of leaving a safe place. She was somewhat of a recluse, and may never have left her home in the last 20 years of her life (Barnet 444).
She may have been content to stay in her home and garden because of her challenging imagination. With an imagination like hers practical experience may have appeared to be dull.
She never married but developed several passionate relationships with both women and men. Some critics believe she was homosexual and had a relationship with her sister in-law, Sue Gilbert Dickinson. Her letters describe 19th century expressions of love among women. She compared her love for Sue as not being compatible with Sue’s marriage to her brother, Austin. Others believe her letters presented an ideal version of female friendship based on mutual love (Emily1)
Dickinson had several relationships with men. One was Benjamin Franklin Newton, a law student who worked in her father’s office. He was more of a mentor who taught her an appreciation of authors. Her most passionate relationship was with Judge Otis P. Lord. It was believed that Emily was in love with him the last 6 years of her life. He died in 1884. In June, after his death Emily suffered a nervous collapse. Her health went downhill from there and she slipped into a coma and paralysis as a result of Bright’s disease. She died on May 15, 1886 (Dickinson 17).
The Term Paper on Theme Of Death In Emily Dickinson Poetry
Theme of Death in Emily Dickinson Poetry Not one of Emily Elizabeth Dickinsons readers has met the woman who lived and died in Amherst, Massachusetts more than a century ago, yet most of those same readers who have come to understand her through her work feel as if they know her closely. However it was her reclusive life that made understanding her quite difficult. However, taking a close look at ...
She was lonely as a girl many believe she chose to be lonely and thought isolation as her fate. (Dickinson 14).
After her death and discovering her poems, her sister took the poems to Mabel Loomis Todd agreed to work on publishing her Poems. Lavinia and Mrs. Todd had a disagreement and the poems were divided between them. Later in 1955 Thomas H. Johnson started bringing all the known poems together in “The Poems of Emily Dickinson” three volumes were published in 1958. Mr. Johnson’s work on the poems has been greatly praised (Dickinson 17).
When her father died in June 1874, Emily was devastated. She did not appear to be close her mother or father, but somewhat closer to her father. In one statement Emily said, “I have never had a mother”(Dickinson 2).
A year after her fathers death her mother suffered paralysis and became an invalid. Emily and her sister Lavina took care of their mother the rest of her life. Emily described it as her mother becoming the child and her becoming the mother.
Critique of “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” and the Author
Emily Dickinson’s poetry is a reflection of the sadness in her life. In the poem, Because I Could Not Stop for Death the use of images remembered from the past helps to clarify concepts of unknown limits of eternity. She is comparing the known to the unknown. Also, the poem shows the relationship between reality and the imagination. In the line (1) she says “Because I could not stop for death” (2) “He kindly stopped for me” implies even though were not always ready for death it comes anyway. Line (5) of the poem “We slowly drove – he knew no haste” and lines (6) ”And I had put away” and (7) “My labor and my leisure too” might mean there is no hurry now and things that may have seemed important before death came, are no longer so important”. The poem also implies the natural progression of the stages of life. In line (18) “A Swelling of the Ground”, literally this shows as the carriage rises toward the sky toward heaven, this makes the ground look like it is swelling below them. The poem may symbolize three stages of life. Childhood may be represented by line (9) “School, where Children played”; maturity may be represented by line (11) “Fields of Grazing Grain”; and old age represented by line (12) “We passed the setting sun”. Dickinson may have viewed ones entire life as “Horses Heads”(23) leading “toward eternity”(24).
The Term Paper on Was Emily Dickinson leading an isolated life?
... her life alone. In her isolation, she was writing great poems with which she was making herself attached to this world. Emily Dickinson will ... love the nature as she does. In the last two lines of her poetry, she seems to be requesting them to ... of all time. During her life time, there were only seven poems published but after her death her 1800 poems went to the print ...
The stages of existence are implied (Shaw).
This poem was written in what is described as being her “prolific years” when over one-third of her poems were written (Joyner).
Dickinson’s poetry has been compared to Edgar Allen Poe. She went out of her way to cultivate what others tried to avoid. For example “I like a look of Agony” she said because “I know it’s true”. She was resourceful in finding power where others found pain. She also wrote about loneliness and love probably because of the absence of love or a lover in her life (Dickinson 11).
Works Cited
Dickinson, Emily, Literature for Composition: Essays, Fiction, Poetry and Drama.
Ed.Sylvan Barnet, Morton Berman, William Burto, William Cain, and Marcia
Stubbs, New York: Longman, 2000. 44
“Emily Dickinson Love Letters to Sue” Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide, Literature
Resource Center. GaleNet. NSTCC Lib., Blountville, TN. 06 Mar 2002
http://galenet.com
Franklin, Ralph W. “Because I Could Not Stop For Death.” The Poems of Emily
Dickinson, www.poets.org/poems/Poemprnt.cfm
Gilson, Bill, “Emily Dickinson” bio by Bill Gilson, 06 Mar 2002
<www.ibiblio.org/cheryb/women/Emily-Dickinson-bio.html>
Joyner, Nancy Carol, Reference Guide to American Literature 3rd ed., St James Press,
1994.
Reeves, James “Emily Dickinson: Overview” Literature Resource Center. GaleNet
NSTCC Lib., Blountville, TN. 06 Mar 2002.
Shaw, M.N., “Dickinson’s Because I Could Not Stop for Death”, Explicator, Fall 91 Vol
50 Issue 1, p20d. <http://www.cswnet.com/~erin/ed14.htm>
