Model Poem: Because I could not Stop for Death

Yulia Shopiaty, an English teacher from Tasikmalay, West Java, Indonesia, analyzes a model poem entitling Because I could not stop for Death composed by Emily Dickinson. She comments that we should prepare our death and be optimistic for our life in hereafter. It means that we should have good attitude because the life in the world is the process to enter the life in hereafter.

Because I could not Stop for Death

by

Emily Dickinson

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.  Kind of poem

     This poem belongs to model poem. It is because the poem was written by renown poet.

2.  Poetic Devices

     a.  Stanza: Each of the six stanzas has four lines. A four-line stanza is called a quatrain. 

     b.  Rhyme: there is no rhyme in this poem.

     c.  Rhythm: In each stanza, the first line has eight syllables (four feet); the second, six syllables (three feet); the third, eight syllables (four feet); and the fourth, six syllables (three feet). In each line (whether eight or six syllables), the first syllable is unstressed, the second is stressed, the third is unstressed, the fourth is stressed, and so on. Thus, the first and third lines of each stanza are in iambic tetrameter, and the second and fourth lines are in iambic trimeter.

     d.  Alliteration : My labor and my leisure too, For only gossamer my gown, My tippet only tulle

     e.  Repetition:  We passed (third stanza, first, third and fourth line)

     f.  Comparison: Feels shorter than the DAY

3.  Poetic Diction

     a.  Connotation: the writer uses words that have deep meaning. It means that the writer uses connotation words in her poem, example: civility (politeness, courtesy)

     b.  Paradox: Feels shorter than the DAY

     c.  Metaphor: seemed A swelling of the GROUND

     d.  Personification   : He kindly stop for me, he passed us, The dews drew quivering and chill

4.  Tone  : optimistic, pleasant

5.  Symbol:  school, fields, setting sun.

     a.  school is the morning of  life, childhood;

     b.  fields:  midday of life, the working years;

     c.  setting .sun, the evening of life, dying. gazing: ripe

6.  Theme 

     The acceptance of Death or the hope of life after death

7.  Message

     We should prepare our death and be optimistic for our life in hereafter. It means that we should have good attitude because the life in the world is the process to enter the life in hereafter.