One might undoubtedly agree to an eerie, haunting, if not frightening, tone in Dickinson's poem. Dickinson uses controlling adjectives-"slowly" and "passed"-to create a tone that seems rather placid. For example, "We slowly drove-He knew no haste / ...We passed the School ... / We passed the Setting Sun-," sets a slow, quiet, calm, and dreamy atmosphere (5, 9, 11, 12). "One thing that impresses us," one author wrote, "is the remarkable placidity, or composure, of its tone" (Greenberg 128). The tone in Dickinson's poem will put its readers' ideas on a unifying track heading towards a boggling atmosphere.

Dickinson's masterpiece lives on complex ideas that are evoked through symbols, which carry her readers through her poem. Besides the literal significance of -the "School," "Gazing Grain," "Setting Sun," and the "Ring"-much is gathered to

Monteiro made the discovery and concluded that "For indeed, imbedded in their ritualistic game is a reminder of the mortal stakes that the poet talks about elsewhere"(21). On this invited journey, one vividly sees the "Children" playing, laughing, and singing. This scene conveys deep emotions and moods through verbal pictures.

Emily Dickinson dresses the scene such that mental pictures of sight, feeling, and sound come to life. The imagery begins the moment Dickinson invites Her reader into the "Carriage." Death "slowly" takes the readers on a sight seeing trip where they see the stages of life. The first site "We" passed was the "School, where Children strove" (9). Because it deals with an important symbol, -the "Ring"-this first scene is perhaps the most important. One author noted that "the children, at recess, do not play (as one would expect them to) but strive" (Monteiro 20). In addition, at recess, the children performed a venerable ritual, perhaps known to all, in a ring. This ritual is called "Ring-a-ring-a-roses," and is recited:

Greenberg, John M. "Dickinson's Because I could not stop for Death." Explicator. v49n4. Summer 1991. 218.

The imagery in the final scene, "We passed the Setting Sun," proved very emotional (12). One can clearly picture a warm setting sun, perhaps, over a grassy horizon. The idea of a setting sun, aftermath a fact of slumber in a cold dark night. When Dickinson passe

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Approximate Word count = 972
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)