Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 69 views

    A Close Reading of Emily Dickinson's "Because I Could Not Stop For Death"

    Uploaded by

    Green Light
    This document provides a close reading of Emily Dickinson's poem "Because I Could Not Stop for Death" with three key points: 1. It presents three parallel layers of interpretation of the poem's imagery and metaphors relating to physical life, displaced memories, and acceptance of leaving earthly life behind. 2. It then considers an alternative negative reading of the poem where the speaker is ready to die but cannot, and death is a constant miserable companion. 3. The analysis concludes that both readings are defensible based on the poem's language and metaphors, and that Dickinson was capable of crafting imagery suggesting depression, as evidenced elsewhere in her work.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    A Close Reading of Emily Dickinson's "Because I Could Not Stop For Death"

    Uploaded by

    Green Light
    69 views4 pages
    This document provides a close reading of Emily Dickinson's poem "Because I Could Not Stop for Death" with three key points: 1. It presents three parallel layers of interpretation of the poem's imagery and metaphors relating to physical life, displaced memories, and acceptance of leaving earthly life behind. 2. It then considers an alternative negative reading of the poem where the speaker is ready to die but cannot, and death is a constant miserable companion. 3. The analysis concludes that both readings are defensible based on the poem's language and metaphors, and that Dickinson was capable of crafting imagery suggesting depression, as evidenced elsewhere in her work.

    Original Description:

    Close Reading, Emily Dickinson

    Original Title

    Close Reading

    Copyright

    © Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)

    Available Formats

    DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    This document provides a close reading of Emily Dickinson's poem "Because I Could Not Stop for Death" with three key points: 1. It presents three parallel layers of interpretation of the poem's imagery and metaphors relating to physical life, displaced memories, and acceptance of leaving earthly life behind. 2. It then considers an alternative negative reading of the poem where the speaker is ready to die but cannot, and death is a constant miserable companion. 3. The analysis concludes that both readings are defensible based on the poem's language and metaphors, and that Dickinson was capable of crafting imagery suggesting depression, as evidenced elsewhere in her work.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    69 views4 pages

    A Close Reading of Emily Dickinson's "Because I Could Not Stop For Death"

    Uploaded by

    Green Light
    This document provides a close reading of Emily Dickinson's poem "Because I Could Not Stop for Death" with three key points: 1. It presents three parallel layers of interpretation of the poem's imagery and metaphors relating to physical life, displaced memories, and acceptance of leaving earthly life behind. 2. It then considers an alternative negative reading of the poem where the speaker is ready to die but cannot, and death is a constant miserable companion. 3. The analysis concludes that both readings are defensible based on the poem's language and metaphors, and that Dickinson was capable of crafting imagery suggesting depression, as evidenced elsewhere in her work.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    of 4

    A Close Reading of Emily Dickinson's "Because I Could Not Stop for Death"

    First, three parallel layers of interpretation: ine Because I could not stop for Death He kindly stopped for me The Carriage held ut !ust "urselves &nd Immortality' He slowly drove ))He knew no haste &nd I had put away *y la or and my leisure too For his Civility !hysical life or "ody Displaced memories Spirit not ready to die death arrives in its own good time carriage # hearse n(a slow course of a funeral procession same same carriage # life$s course destination # heaven reviewing dying memories same same carriage # %chariot to heaven% destination # eternal life slow ascent to heaven

    the dead ody has no earthly work or play no plans for tomorrow ahead the ody is now a last review, in the corpse, has no company of Death company ut %Death%

    acceptance that earthly life is left ehind a civil or kind escort, carrying the spirit to eternity

    +e passed the school where Children strove &t ,ecess ) in the the hearse rides past a memories of childhood childhood is gone ,ing school and play memories of +e passed the leaving earthly productive and fertile Fields of -a.ing past a field efforts and earthly periods of life/ the -rain rewards ehind harvest is passed sunset # the end of life +e passed the no more days to the day ends 0or, here, life$s setting sun end memories1 "r rather he passed memories 2 life left timeless, the spirit life now still us ehind y passing time looks on The Dews drew memories fade and chill night, gravelike 4 3uivering and chill grow cold For only -ossamer thin fa ric of urial ghostlike e5istence ghost4

    my gown *y Tippet ) only Tulle

    shroud 0 ut note clad in airy %gown% allusion to spiders1 more thin silk 0and, via silkworms, to again, ghostlike worms devouring the ody1

    ghost4

    +e passed efore a house that seemed & swelling of the fresh)mounded grave -round The ,oof was a flat tom stone or scarcely visi le marker the top of this The Cornice ) in %house% is a casket 6 the ground ft' under 7ince then ) $tis long dead Centuries ) and yet Feels shorter than the Day I first surmised the Horses$ Heads +ere toward 8ternity'

    spirit sees own grave the grave the casket long departed

    passed eyond the grave n(a n(a long departed to heavenly reward

    Timeless 3uality of eternal life

    &nd now let us look at this poem differently, and see what happens if we reverse a single metaphor #turn "the gra$e is %like& a house" to "my house is %like& my gra$e"'' +e will find we have an alternative, far more negative ut e3ually consistent, reading for the poem: ine Because I could not stop for Death He kindly stopped for me The Carriage held ut !ust "urselves &nd Immortality' He slowly drove ))He knew no haste &nd I had put away *y la or and my leisure too For his Civility ingering ife I was ready to die, ut could not: suicide was not an option' Death %stopped% and refused to complete his task carriage # my lingering earthly e5istence and my eternal e5istence thereafter' +hy can$t I die and end this misery4 I$m ready )) see, I no longer work nor play' Death is my constant companion'

    +e passed the school where Children strove &t ,ecess ) in the ,ing +e passed the Fields of -a.ing -rain +e passed the setting sun "r rather he passed us

    *y childhood is gone and lost' It is too late to e5perience life$s fertile period/ I$ve neither work nor children' The day ends, each like the last' 9ife has passed me y/ and keeps passing me y with each sunset'

    The Dews drew 3uivering and I am cold inside' chill I am like a creature in a gown of spider)we , almost For only -ossamer my gown ghostlike' *y Tippet ) only Tulle &nd fit for worms, along with spiders' +e passed efore a house that seemed & swelling of the -round This is my house/ it might as well e a grave' The ,oof was scarcely visi le I keep myself hidden' The Cornice ) in the ground To visit me, one must %go underground'% 7ince then ) $tis Centuries ) It feels like my empty e5istence has lasted for and yet centuries Feels shorter than the Day But not as long as one eventful day I first surmised the Horses$ Heads +hen my whole life fell apart and I knew I would e +ere toward 8ternity' left with my misery for eternity' Is reading the poem in one of these directions more correct than in the other( I do not elieve so' )as Dickinson consciously thinking a"out the second direction of reading as she constructed the poem( I have no idea/ I also have no idea if that 3uestion is important' +hat is important from my perspective is that the second reading is clearly defensi le )) the metaphors, images and sym ols all work, and work without giving me the sense that I am forcing an interpretation' Does the second interpretation fit *ell *ith *hat *e kno* of Dickinson( :es, very well, as considera le evidence e5ists to suggest that she was agorapho ic and was su !ect to periods of e5tended depression' Imagery of some of her other poems leads me to elieve she may have suffered from migraine headaches 0%I felt a funeral in my rain% may offer the est description of the pain of a migraine that has ever een put into print'1 However, I find it less important to ask if she %lived% the image than to ask if she were capa le of creating it )) the answer to that second 3uestion eing a resounding %yes'%

    You might also like