Confusion With Reality in “Because I could not stop for Death”
...ll alive. The capitalization of “I” signifies the importance of Immortality and that, perhaps, this passenger could be Immortality riding with them. Dickinson's poem maintains a tone that leads its readers on a track toward a confusing ambiance. The eerie notion of immortality sets the tone for the next stanza as the use of the controlling adjective “slowly” in line five that creates a seemingly calming mood. “We slowly drove-He knew no haste “sets a slow, calm, and pensive atmosphere. “One thing that impresses us,” one author wrote, “is the remarkable placidity, or composure, of its tone” (Greenberg 128). A possible explanation for the slow drive is idea that the carriage has been turned into a hearse and is slow because it is leading a funeral procession. Possibly, death drives her so smoothly and gently that the ride settles the mood of the poem. The speaker rids herself from everything, including “labor” and “leisure” and dwells on the man's “civility,” or politeness. Lines nine through twelve describe the journey while in the “Carriage.” Aside from the literal meanings of the “School,” “Ring,” “Grazing Grain,” and the “Setting Sun” many ideas are drawn together to complete the poem's overall idea that it is hard to decipher between reality and the imagination. Dickinson portrays three stages of life including a final stage of eternity. “School, where children strove,” is the first stage that could represent childhood. Following in the 10th line, “in the Ring” suggests the never-ending circle of eternity that is near. “Fields of Gazing Grain” could suggest maturity and “Setting Sun” could represent old age or a person's slow death. The speaker could mean that after a lifelong journey, symbolically, her tour of life was short and it is now time for the last stage of “eternity,” or death. The imagery in the final line, ”We passed the Setting Sun,” makes the reader clearly imagine a warm setting sun, maybe with bright colors over a horizon. However, in this stanza, if the speaker is truly deceased, she simply thinks the sun is setting on a regular basis. She is not able to figure out that she is dead and her struggle to distinguish between reality and the imagination continues The speaker may not want to accept that she is dead because her life was cut too short. The fourth stanza states, “Or rather-He passed Us,” meaning the “Setting Sun” passed us, which stresses that this pleasant time was not long enough. The “dews drew quivering and chill” to the speaker. Lines three and four in this stanza illustrate the reason for her coldness. The speaker is attired in a “Gown," or cobweb, and “Tippet,” or cape that is made of '”Tulle.” This is a kind of thin, transparent, open material that people are dressed in when they die. At this point, the speaker realizes that she is dead, and the tone is settled. “We paused before a House that seemed A swelling of the Ground,” begins stanza five by demonstrating tha...