Although not published until 1890, Emily Dickinson likely wrote “Because I could not stop for Death” in 1863, in the middle of her most generative period. The poem, which is one of Dickinson’s most famous, centers on a female speaker who recounts her metaphysical journey from life to death. This journey requires her to relinquish both “labor” and “leisure” (lines 7). She must also turn away from the time-bound nature of ordinary life and toward the timelessness of eternity. The speaker’s journey begins when a gentlemanly personification of Death picks the speaker up in his horse-drawn carriage. Together with Death, the speaker passes through an allegorical landscape that represents the full arc of human life, from youth to adulthood to old age and death. They then come to a stop before a mysterious house that’s buried beneath a great mound of soil. This house represents the speaker’s final dwelling place: the grave. Intriguingly, the speaker never narrates the actual transition from the carriage into the death-house. Thus, even though she addresses us from beyond the grave and therefore implies the existence of an afterlife, the speaker nonetheless preserves the mystery of what happens after death.

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