“Because I Could Not Stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson
Read over this poem and use your analysis to answer the questions below. I expect you to come up with your OWN
original answers based on YOUR personal opinions. Just do your best!
Because I could not stop for Death –
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 –
We passed the School, where Children strove
At Recess – in the Ring –
We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain –
We passed the Setting Sun –
Or rather – He passed us –
The Dews drew 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 – in the Ground –
Since then – 'tis Centuries – and yet
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses' Heads
Were toward Eternity –
1. What personification does Dickinson begin in the first stanza? How is this thing made to seem
human? Cite lines from the poem.
2. How does the speaker seem to feel about giving up her life? What proof from the poem can you offer?
adapted from www.bshsenglishclassroom.homestead.com/
3. In the third stanza, the word “passed” is used three times. What three things do they pass?
a.
b.
c.
4. Notice the order of the things they pass. What might each symbolically represent?
a.
b.
c.
5. In the fourth stanza, Dickinson changes her mind and says that “He passed Us.” Why might this be
significant? What could it represent?
6. In the fourth stanza, the carriage seems to have completely passed life by. What does Dickinson use to
describe the coldness of death? Cite lines.
7. In the fifth stanza, they “paused before a House that seemed/A swelling of the Ground.” What is this
house? Why does Dickinson use the term “house” for it? What effect does it have?
8. Why does Dickinson change from using the past tense to using the word “feels” in the last stanza?
9. Carefully read and evaluate the final stanza. How does the vision of death here and in the rest of the
poem contrast with the traditional Christian view of death and the afterlife?
10. Some critics believe that the poem shows death kindly escorting the speaker to some sort of paradise.
Others believe that death comes in the form of a deceiver, carrying her off to destruction. Which do
you believe? Why? Offer proof from the poem to back up your belief.
11. Why is immortality in the carriage?
adapted from www.bshsenglishclassroom.homestead.com/