Dickinson

            Emily Dickinson grew up in Amherst Massachusetts in a very strict household.  She lived mostly her entire life in isolation. She loved to read and was inspired by many other poets in her life. Dickinson’s poem, “Because I could not stop for Death” (1),was written about 1863. This was written towards the end of the American Civil War.  Emily Dickinson had a lot of time to think and thought about death very much during this time.  Even though they were in the North, they had lost many close friends to the war.  Emily Dickinson had strong Puritan beliefs, which shows in the first stanza of this poem, “Because I could not stop for Death” (1). It says that she accepts death, which is a part of life, and cannot control it. The belief to live on forever in the after life shows up also in the poem when Dickinson describes the carriage, “The Carriage held but just Ourselves - And Immortality” (3-4).  The poem’s tone is very depressing and it almost seems that Dickinson was ready to die too, especially when she describes how the person was dressed in the poem, “For only Gossamer, my Gown – My Tippet – only Tulle-” (15-16). Because of her isolation maybe she thought of death as being pleasant because the description of how the person was dressed. It actually describes a person who was going to a dance instead of a funeral.

"They say that God is everywhere, and yet we always think of Him as somewhat of a recluse."
                                                    - EMILY DICKINSON, letter to Mrs. J. G. Holland, spring 1878