The Portrayal of Death in Dickinson’s because I Could not Stop for Death

Emily Dickinson view on death was one that showed that people do not need to fear death, because death is something that all people should accept if they want to live a full life.How is death seen as an old friend to those who accepted death, rather than those who waste their lives trying to avoid death in fear dying.

Emily Dickinson was a woman that had life in isolation from the outside world. Despite living an isolated life Dickinson had written many poems during this time that had become her most iconic overtime. Because while she had lived like this she was more involved with her family and her father was a major influence in her poems at the time. The time Dickinson had lived in isolation was when she had produced her most iconic works. Dickinson’s influences when she was writing her poems were “Dickinson’s poetry was influenced by the poets of seventeenth-century England, as well as her upbringing in a Puritan New England town, which encouraged a Calvinist, orthodox, and conservative approach to Christianity reading of the Book of Revelation”(Bianchi 12). Dickinson’s influences with her writings came from her faith and belief of her religion, and through this she did not fear death. Because of her faith in the afterlife Dickinson welcomed death as an old friend which came from her influences, and because of this her main themes in poetry became religion, death, home and family, nature and love.

During her time in isolation Dickinson she had written about death and how she would welcome it. Dickinson’s faith in the afterlife and her religion can be seen in Because I could not stop for Death.The second stanza is her accepting death, because death showing a kind path to the afterlife. This faith she has in the afterlife greatly influenced her writings as most of them are about accepting death. For example Dickinson had said “Because I could not stop for Death –

He kindly stopped for me –The Carriage held but just Ourselves –And Immortality”(Dickinson2). This is showing how she did not fear death and she had seen death as another part of life so she had greeted death as an old friend. The subject of death, as well as her own death, is seen throughout Dickinson’s poems and letters. Although some of them are seen as morbid, but during the time this was not seen as an unusual mindset for a time and place. when religion was the main attention, and focused as well as being prepared to die were all common during the time. Dickinson poems were ones that had involved death and how death is not something that should be feared.

Dickinson’s inspirations were the poetry of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, as well as John Keats. John Keats was an English Romantic poet. He was also one of the main figures of the second generation of Romantic poets during his time. As well as Elizabeth Barrett Browning also being a English poet a part of the Romantic Movement that Dickinson had liked the most. This is because of how Dickinson had related to Browning’s poems, because she can relate to the feelings of Browning more because she is also a woman while Keats was a man. For example “Dickinson had crafted a new type of persona for the first person. The speakers in Dickinson’s poetry, like those in Bronte’s and Browning’s works, are sharp-sighted observers who see the inescapable limitations of their societies as well as their imagined and imaginable escapes… “ (Poetry Foundation 2). Dickinson had developed her style of written by mimicking the style of writers that inspired her, and by doing so Dickinson had created her iconic style of writing that most notice by reading her poems. Emily Dickinson’s poems would not have the tone that draws in the reader if she had not taking inspiration from the authors she had enjoyed reading. One of Dickinson’s talents as a poet was her ability to describe abstract ideas with vivid imagery. Dickinson’s poems, are mostly abstract ideas and things that are used to set up a story, but the idea between the ideas and stories are complex and unpredictable.

Emily Dickinson’s main theme in her poems are that of death, because she did not fear death she had more of a curiosity. Dickinson’s curiosity of death can be seen in most of her poems, because most of them deal with religion, death, home and family, nature and love. And because of this Dickinson’s style of poetry is regarded to be one of the most outstanding contributions to American literature. For example, “Emily Dickinson and her writing is significant to American Literature because of the way that she changed poetry. She took the time to observe life around her and she treated everything; including animals, plants, rocks, and homes; as equals… This showed through in her writing as she mentioned again and again how depressing life can really be”(CSUStan 1).