No matter what we refer to death as it is always with us and causes great pain in our lives, but to some it can inspire. It is the theme of Emily Dickinson's poem, 'Because I Could Not Stop for Death'. Rather than causing more pain at the thought of death she wants the reader to think of death as an inevitable change, rather than an end to existence. Death in this poem is told as a woman's last trip, which is headed to eternity. The poem is a ballad, a narrative poem that is recording her journey to death. The line scheme is ABCB and has a punchy lively mood, which reinforces her easy and light-hearted attitude to death, which is different to the more popular views of death such as death being brutal and cruel. To simplify a complex abstract idea to what we know nothing about, one of her strategies is to personify death and make it more human, which makes death seem less chilling. She characterises death and brings it to a more personal level. She uses this metaphor throughout!

the poem and so making the poem more unde

their bones, and soules deliverie'; Donne is saying here that Death may have come to man on earth it has only made a soul free. Donne writes this poem in the usual sonnet form of fourteen lines with the usual octave and sestet. In the octave he does not directly assault or defy death but he comments on the nature of sleep and on the passing of 'our best men'. Only when we read line nine, 'Thou art slave to Fate, chance, kings, and desperate men', do we see a frontal attack, with insults and condemnation aimed directly at Death. Death is a slave, and viewed on a lower level than that of 'Fate, chance, kings, and desperate men', and it's powers are no better than that of 'poppie, or charmes'. In these lines Death is mocked and belittled, taking the fear out of his coming. Death is blamed, dishonoured and lowered to the status of 'desperate men'. In lines five and six, death is compared to 'rest and sleepe', which give pleasure, a euphemism reinforcing the idea that death is a p!

rstandable. She finds herself on a 'date with death', who is a gentleman and makes a call to a naive young woman. We can establish that she welcomes the date and the kindly gentleman, who came to rescue her from her busy schedule, as she had no time to die. In this first scene we see that she does not ride alone in the carriage with death as Immortality rides with them. The poem was written in 1863 and in that era it would have been unheard of for a woman to ride in a carriage alone with a man. We never hear a description of Immortality as the young woman's attention is focused on Death. At this stage we can already see that the poem is comforting about death and very reassuring. She uses assonance to make soft sounds and helps to make the poem non-threatening for example, 'Ourselves/ And Immortality'. Death is civil, relaxed and unhurried as we can establish by 'his Civility' and 'he knew no haste'. Death has no concept of time. Time !

escriptive language, which enhances the image of the man's death. This poet highlights the horror and loneliness that is often associated with death in this poem. There is a very sad and regretful tone when the poet tells us of him trying to talk to the man. 'The one word he told me the wind took away, /So I shouted again, but the wind passed me by'. When he tried to talk to him, he could not hear the man answering him nor could the man hear him shouting again. The rhyme of the poem, 'Turning, burning, he dangled black', makes it have a very energetic feel and a very fast pace. There is a sense of urgency about what is happening to the man. Baldwin uses a number of similes, which helps to give a more visual description. To take the disturbing, harsh reality out of the picture he uses euphemisms, like Dickinson, 'O then he danced an incredible dance'. He describes the image in interesting, unique and original ways. 'The Word out of which the electrons run, / The snake in the ro!

is an earthly concern, and Death, is not bound by such earthly concepts. She had 'put away' her hectic life to go with Death, who she possibly found charming, and seemed to seduce her away from her life. Even though she has put away this hectic life, she still cannot help but be distracted by the things in her past life. The things that she is seeing from the carriage seem to be more meaningful to her now that she is looking back at them. These things are so common that she may not have stopped to notice them before and she took them for granted in the daily grind of life. She sees the children play

Some common words found in the essay are:
Immortality' Death, Wire' Instead, John Donne, Death Death, Stop Death', God Moses', , Eternity' Suddenly, Michael Baldwin, death poem, Emily Dickinson's, idea death, hectic life, kings desperate men', kings desperate, ride carriage, 'the word, death death, human life, diamond struts', passing judgement death, chance kings desperate, moment death,
Approximate Word count = 2366
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)