Emily Dickinson's Collected Poems

comment closely on the following poem,considering hos its language and structure help present the journey with death

Because I could not stop for Death BY EMILY DICKINSON

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In this poem Dickinson personifies Death as a polite but persistent gentleman, who escorts his charge gently to her final destination.

The journey is dignified and civilised as we are told in the second stanza-

We slowly drove, he knew no haste,

And I had put away

My labor, and my leisure too,

For his civility.

The gentle rhyme suggests a calm and respectful process, and Death is seen as a polite chaperone assisting a lady in to the next world. It is a far less intimidating image than the grim reaper that Death is often personified as.

Source(s)

http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/stop.html