Can You Write A Critical Appreciation Of The Poem "Because I Could Not Stop For Death" By Emily Dickinson?

Emily Dickinson is an American poetess who has expressed her deeply personal experiences of isolation and hardship through her verse. Her experience of life is very limited, but she has given a great deal of intensity of her mind to her poems. Social and contemporary problems do not figure in her poetry. She generally deals with problems of life, faith and death. In this poem, the poetess talks about briefness of human life, death and eternity. Her deep religious faith in everlasting life after death makes death look like a noble, kind and civil being. Since life is never willing to surrender itself to death, Death approaches every living creature himself. He drives that soul in his carriage slowly towards eternity.

The poem brings us a sense of peace and serenity which is an outcome of deep religious faith of the poetess. We can imagine a state of existence which is not affected by the passage of time and where every thing is changeless. Religious-minded readers will appreciate poetess's view that this physical life is only a preparation for the eternal life in the next world. The language of the poem is simple but figurative. The sustained image of journey in the company of death beautifully explains the spiritual journey of man from this temporary existence to eternal existence in the hereafter. It is also symbolic of the journey of funeral procession from home to grave.