Emily Dickinson opens her famous poem with a dilemma that plagues us all: she is simply too busy to die. Consider how many plans you have made, big and small, in just the past few hours. I have made plans to have a prescription refilled. I have planned for lunch and even dinner. I have confirmed plans for a tutoring session later today. I have considered plans for a vacation next summer, a full year from now. This is just the tip of my planning iceberg.
I have not, however, until this question today, given a single thought to my own impending death. And that's how humanity operates. Dickinson is acknowledging that she did not have time to "stop" for Death, which she also personifies. However, Death is the great equalizer, and it does not care about any plans humanity makes. Eventually, Death stops for us all, stopping us in the tracks of the plans we have made for days that will never come.
In spite of the fact that the speaker didn't have time to die, Death "kindly" stopped by for her, anyway.
The title of the poem, which comes from the first line, indicates that the speaker has no fear of death. That being the case, death—personified as Death with a capital D—gladly stops his carriage for the speaker, ready to take on her on a comfortable ride into eternity. One further way of looking at the title is to say that it shows us how death invariably chooses us rather than the other way round. We cannot stop for death; it is simply not in our power to do so. But death will always stop for us.
Once the speaker has climbed aboard Death's carriage, she embarks on a journey from this world into the next. Death is a kind and considerate companion, not to mention a careful driver. ("We slowly drove – He knew no haste.") Once again, this would appear to indicate that death holds no fear for the speaker; it's little more than the next stage in the soul's journey.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47652/because-i-could-not-stop-for-death-479
No comments:
Post a Comment