About the Author :
The complete name of the author is Emily Elizabeth Dickinson
Born on 10th December, 1830 and died on15th May, 1886) in Amherst, Massachusetts.
She was an American poet. Generally she was considered as a private poet.
Many of her poems deal with the themes if death and immortality of soul.
Her poems contain short lines often without titles.
She used Slant rhyme
Slant rhyme is also called half-rhyme is consonance on the final consonants of the words involved (e.g. ill with shell).
The complete name of the author is Emily Elizabeth Dickinson
Born on 10th December, 1830 and died on15th May, 1886) in Amherst, Massachusetts.
She was an American poet. Generally she was considered as a private poet.
Many of her poems deal with the themes if death and immortality of soul.
Her poems contain short lines often without titles.
She used Slant rhyme
Slant rhyme is also called half-rhyme is consonance on the final consonants of the words involved (e.g. ill with shell).
We can divide her poetic works into three periods.
Pre-1861. : The poems written in this period are sentimental in nature. Published by Thomas H. Johnson, with the title The Poems of Emily Dickinson,
1861–1865. : It is the developed period creativity can be witnessed inher poems.
Post-1866. : Only limited number of poems are written during this period.
Her famous poems are:
"A narrow Fellow in the Grass"
"The Snake";
"Safe in their Alabaster Chambers ‘
"The Sleeping"
"Blazing in the Gold and quenching in Purple"
"Sunset’
She used traditional balladic stanzas with ABCB rhyme and some of the poems contain common meter with alternative lines of iambic pentameter and iambic trimeter.
The Poem
Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.
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.
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.
At recess, in the ring;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.
Or rather, he passed us;
The dews grew quivering and chill,
For only gossamer my gown,
My tippet only tulle.
The dews grew 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 but a mound.
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.
Since then 'tis centuries, and yet each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity.
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity.
Synonyms and antonyms
Carriage : Carrier, a four-wheeled horse-drawn passenger vehicle, vehicle, coach, trap, gig, cab, wagon
Haste : Quick, speed, swift, (Antonyms : slow, calm)
Leisure : Free time, spare time, relax ( Antonyms : busy, engrossed, tired)
Civility : cultured, well-bred, sensitive, well-mannered ( Antonyms : barbaric, rough, rogue)
Strove : past tense of strive, endeavor, effort (Antonyms : idle, lazy)
Recess : interval, suspension of activities ( Antonyms : continue, cyclic)
Dews : droplets of water
Quivering : shaking, waving (Antonyms ; still, motionless)
Gossamer: soft fabric, soft cloth, delicate, light, flimsy (Antonyms : hard, rough, coarse, strong)
Tippet : A covering for the shoulders, as of a sleeve, hood, or cape
Tulle : Fine starched net of silk or nylon used for veils (Pardah)
Swelling : coming out, protruding(Antonyms : Swallow, pit)
Scarcely: Scantily, not fully (Antonym: fully, completely)
Cornice: An ornamental horizontal molding or frame used to conceal rods, picture hooks, or other devices, decoration
Mound: A pile of earth, gravel, sand, rocks, or debris heaped for protection or concealment, heap
Eternity: endless, heaven, paradise (Antonym: doom, hell, Hades)
APPRECIATION OF THE POEM
1. Death is personified as a gentleman caller or suitor
2. The drive, the journey symbolizes leaving life behind.
3. She progresses from childhood, adulthood (the "gazing grain" is ripe) and to setting (dying) sun to her grave.
4. The children are presented as active in their leisure ("strove").
5. Irony is employed in the activity of children and passivity of death and inactivity involved in death.
6. Images of children are used to suggest activity, future and progress.
7. The word "passed" is used four times in stanzas three and four.
8. They are "passing" by the children and grain, both still part of life.
9. They are also "passing" into eternity.
10. The word ‘passed’ is used several times to intensify the concept of change, and impermanence.
11. ("dew grew quivering and chill")- it indicates inactivity and becoming cold which is in contract to the activity of preceding stanzas.
12. Immortality is symbolized as the final destination of life and the poem advocates deathlessness of the soul.
13. Final stanza establishes paradox and ambiguity,
14. The word surmise is similar to expectation and guess so she is imagining for the eternity.
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