简析艾米莉?狄金森的《因为我不能停步等候死神》

王艺晓

摘  要：在19世紀，美国文学史上出现了一位具有传奇色彩的女诗人，她的诗特别之处在于她对生活的态度、对哲学的思考、对永恒的探索。她就是艾米丽狄金森，一个与她的时代格格不入的伟大诗人，一个具有独立主见的女性代表。

艾米丽生前写了近1800首诗，但只出版过7首。自从她25岁起，艾米丽就开始与外界隔绝，闭门不出，专注于庭院和诗。“Because I could not stop for Death” 是一首围绕死亡和永恒的诗，字里行间流露出她对生命延续，灵魂永生的思考。

关键词：艾米丽·迪金森  死亡  永生  诗歌

A Brief Analysis of BECAUSE I COULD NOT STOP FOR DEATH by Emily Dickinson

Abstract：In 19th century，there was a legendary poetess in American history，whose poems were empowered by how she looked at this world，how much she pondered about the philosophy and how she explored the eternity which made her fairly idiosyncratic. She was Emily Dickinson，a great poetess who differed from others in her age，an independent female representative with mind and talents.

Emily wrote nearly 1800 poems in her life but only 7 of them got published. Since she was 25，Emily started to isolate herself from the society. There were basically two things that she cared in her life —— her garden and poems. “Because I could not stop for Death” is a poem centered on the subject of death and eternity，which gives voice to her opinions about the continuity of life and the thinking of the immortal spirit.

Key words：Emily Dickinson  death  eternity  poetry

It is generally believed that this poem reflects the views of death of Emily Dickinson，that is，to accept death calmly so that the human minds can obtain the eternity. Nevertheless，unlike other poems with death as the theme，this poem anthropomorphizes death and immortality，and what makes it special is that Dickinson particularly compares death to a gentleman，which upends the detestable features of death in the traditional sense while she still being aware of its true purpose throughout the excursion in the poem. Such images presented in poems are brilliant and rare and Harold Bloom（1994）once acclaimed Emily about her creative talents and believed that she was no less gifted than Shake Spear in the aspect of creativity.

This essay primarily focuses on the analysis of the poem “Because I could not stop for Death” by discussing three aspects：structure and metrics，the applications of rhetorical devices and its effects and the theme. By virtue of searching related materials and reading lots of surveys，this paper is going to explain and present why this poem plays a key role in the history of American literature.

1 Structure and Metrics

1.1 The brief analysis of the content of the poem

The poem “Because I could not stop for Death” is written by Emily Dickinson who is a highly reputed American poetess. As representatives of Romanticism in the United States，Dickinson and Walt Whitman are considered the most accomplished poets in the 19th century.

“They were pioneers in American poetry pointing to Ezra Pound and the Imagists，and to William Carlos Williams and Wallace Stevens and other traditions in modern American poetry.”（常耀信，2019）

Among around 1800 poems completed by her，this piece shares a similar subject as her other poems but has its own uniqueness and is of great value to dive into the substance.

Same as many of her poetry which rarely have titles，“Because I could not stop for Death” is the first line in the poem，which can normally be served as the title of the whole piece of work. It depicts a scene where a lady who got into a carriage waiting for her which was under control of “a gentleman”----“Death”，accompanied by “a seeming friend”----“Immortality” in a dreamy manner. They drove slowly，and enthralled by his charm，the lady gave away her work and spare time for the politeness of “Death”. They passed the school where children were taking a break，the field where crops were ripe and the sun-setting moment. At some point，she felt the chilly “Drew”，which reminded her of “Gossamer”，her “Gown”. Eventually，they stopped at front of a “House” whose “Cornice” was “in the Ground”，namely，it was a tomb. It seemed that centuries have passed since then，yet it was the first time that she discovered “the Horses Heads were toward Eternity.”

1.2 The configuration and metrics of the poem

It is noticeable that the poetry of Dickinson has characteristics of conciseness，implication and profoundness. The structure of this poem is not sophisticated，with twenty-four lines in total and six stanzas of which each contains four lines. The quatrain is one of her usual forms of poetry and its rhythm is simple and light. Each stanza rhymes with the second or the fourth lines basically applied to the use of iambic trimeter，and the first or the third line of each stanza are in iambic tetrameter.

In fact，such a format had also been used by the pre-romantic poet Robert Burns in his famous work “A Red，Red Rose” in the late 18th century. However，Dickinson herself was too individual to live up to the standards of her predecessors. From the fourth verse of the poem，the meter doesn't follow the rules of iambic trimeter or iambic tetrameter. Its arrangement bears a bit resemblance to Ballad stanza in English poetry.

It might be considered that she appreciated such an ancient form representing the lives and emotions of ordinary people. Thus，“Because I could not stop for Death” has become one of her finest poems contained exquisite emotions presenting through its succinct configuration and characteristic metrics.

2 The application of rhetorical devices and its effects

2.1 The use of personification

The practice of representing objects，qualities，etc. as human beings in this poem gives voice to the vivid imagination of Emily Dickinson and her views of the ultimate questions about human beings，that is，death and eternity. In “Because I could not stop for Death”，there are quite a few objects exhibited in capitals and such expression seems to be given more humane elements and spirit. First of all，the most noteworthy application of personification is the capitalized Death，which can be interpreted as a gentleman waiting for the speaker with politeness and decorum. Through the anthropomorphic Death and the transformation of him into a man of kindness， “Because I could not stop for Death—/ He kindly stopped for me，”（1-2）it seems that the stereotype of death，horrible and scary，has been broken，however，at the same time，it is not under her control to stop for Death and she also has the vague awareness of the great power of Death over her. Then she gets into his “Carriage”，which is also written in capitals，suggesting Death，driving his car，more of a pursuer of the speaker. Apart from that，the third companion is “Immortality”，quite the opposite of Death，which is personified as well. Thus，in stanza 1，two primary objects coated with typical characters present a harmonious picture by virtue of personification.

2.2 The use of symbolism

The well-crafted application of symbolism leads the poem up to a higher level with in-depth thinking. According to Shaw，the images of “School，” “Gazing Grain，” and “Setting Sun” in stanza 3 stand as a compelling depiction of “the three stages of life.”（1991：20）.

As is shown in Fig. 2-2，the speaker goes through three stages of ones life：childhood，adulthood and old age，and they are embodied by the typical characteristics

in each stage respectively：hard-working and energetic Children，the fruitful crops and the setting sun. Whats more，the stage of youth can also be considered as a tense rivalry in ones early years. In this regard，Engle，Patricia（2002：74）pointed out that

‘the children striving “in the Ring” can represent the thrashings of professional competition that occur in ladder-climbing stages of ones career. The sense here is reminiscent of the life-changing visions of ones own death afforded in Dickenss Christmas Carol or Capras Its a Wonderful Life.

Viewing three stages in her life，she seems to ready to embrace what will happen next with great composure and self-assurance compared to what Ebenezer Scrooge reacts after witnessing the past，present and future. Therefore，a span of lifetime is highly condensed in four lines with ingenious choice of representatives and the application of symbolism.

3 Theme

3.1 The depiction of “Death”

The idea of Death is quite different for Dickinson from other poets and philosophers. Farland（1998：96）claimed that：

“Emily Dickinsons contemporaneous pieces portray a destabilizing and unfamiliar afterworld that radically contrasts with the domesticated version in American sentimental poetry of the period.”

Especially in this poem which Death represents a kind gentleman without thrilling terror. It is not so devastating to accept ones ultimate fate，that is，to face the fact that human beings are mortal. Instead，she considered it as a way to embrace a new life or rather the beginning of a spiritual world.

In the views of Engle（2002：75）in terms of the values of Dickinson on the subject of death，whose idea was that，‘Dickinsons dead reckoning in this poem poses the same sort of joyful abandonment to the life-death continuum as Whitman does in “Song of Myself：“All goes onward and outward，nothing collapses，/And to die is different from what any one supposed，and luckier（127-28）.

Despite the fact that leaving the temporal world seems less intimidating and the speaker is more likely to encounter it with much composure in the poem，yet her attitude towards death is still equivocal. The power of death hides behind his modest and gentlemanly appearance that many people are easily deceived. The poetess is conscious，nonetheless，death's outward friendliness can not alter the truth that his cruel nature will destroy ones own freedom of will and that the life of the individual is destined to be limited.

In poems such as “Because I could not stop for Death ” and “I died for Beauty ”，Eve C. Sorum（2012：96）maintained that，

“Dickinson neither exults in the omniscience that death provides（like Rossetti in “Remember”）nor reads loss in light of a particular relationship（like Shakespeare，for example）. Instead，the posthumous voice in Dickinson exists in an anonymous world，dwelling upon the alienation inherent in mortality.”

Therefore，“Because I could not stop for Death，” which attempts to present the enjoyable journey of going through death so much that “And I had put away / My labor and my leisure too”（6-7），reveals its upsetting tension in the following stanzas where the speaker comes to realization the tip-up time settings：“We passed the Setting Sun // Or rather—He passed Us—”（12-13）. To sum up，the depiction of Death is more than one-sided and through its duality the experience becomes more inviting until the moment when the speaker finds “ toward Eternity”.

3.2 The relationship of “Death” and “Immortality”

At the beginning of the excursion，the speaker is not only accompanied by Death，but also Immortality who seems to be at odds with Death in the Carriage. To some degree，Dickinson strove to extract and combine similarities and discrepancies between them. According to Don Gilliland（2009：42-43），

“Dickinson combines materialism and spirituality in the familiar first stanza of “Because I could not stop for Death —，” in which both “Death” and “Immortality” accompany the speaker... Here，the physicality of “Death”— the material transition from body to dust — conjoins with and contrasts to the metaphysics of “Immortality.”

It can be thought that she treasured both the world of materiality and the transcendent realm. Besides，Engle（73）also argued that，

“She juggles temporal with eternal，corporal with spiritual，and life with death deftly，in mercurial shifts between micro and macro views of the worlds around her，within her，and beyond her. Playful or plaintive，her awareness of being on a spiritual search is as apparent as her awareness that she is not what her people and her times expect her to be.”

Even though the structure of the poem is not the expected linear pattern following strict rules，yet it still manages to suggest the blend of the temporality and eternity，echoed by Shaw that “sugges[t] the interconnected and mutually determined nature of the finite and infinite.”（1991：20）.

Thus，the existence of Death and Immortality is the dichotomy of the pursuit of ones life both physically and spiritually but both of them can also be combined together to create a world where ones psyche seems to last forever even without the concretization of the body.

4 Conclusion

Emily Dickinson has been considered one of the pioneers of modernistic poetry in the twentieth century. Her poems carry the sense of simplicity yet sophistication，subtlety yet profoundness and “Because I could not stop for Death” compresses all her unique attitudes and styles conveying the eternity of spirit and how death can be seen as the beginning of life.

The power of death is highlighted，being recognized as a gentleman with good manners yet it is through those lines where she revealed how limited human freedom can be as they have no control in their own death. In her letter according to Thomas Johnson（1958），she even expressed how hopeless and helpless she felt since all human beings are mortal.

This poem，thus，exerts more influence on inspiring people to consider those philosophical questions on account of her multilateral opinions and eye-opening imagination. With compact structure and metrics，brilliant applications of rhetorical devices and its in-depth theme，it is worthwhile to savor，study and can be taken to serve as an inspiration of all time.

References

[1]  Don Gilliland. The Emily Dickinson Journal，Volume 18，Number 2，2009，pp. 38-62（Article）Published by Johns Hopkins University Press.

[2]  Engle，Patricia. “Dickinson's Because I Could not Stop for Death”，The Explicator，2002：60：2，72-75.

[3]  Farland，Maria Magdalena. “ ‘That tritest/brightest truth：Emily Dickinsons anti-sentimentality.” Nineteenth-Century Literature 53.3，1998：364 – 89.

[4]  Harold Bloom. The Western Canon：The Books and School of the Ages[M]，New York：Harcourt Brace，1994：272.

[5]  Shaw，M. N. “Dickinsons ‘Because I Could Not Stop for Death.” The Explicator 50，1991：20.

[6]  Eve C. Sorum. The Self - Elegy Narcissistic Nostalgia or Proleptic Postmortem？ A Companion to Poetic Genre，First Edition. Edited by Erik Martiny. 2012 John Wiley & Sons，Ltd. Published 2012 by John Wiley & Sons，Ltd.

[7]  Johnson，Thomas. The Letters of Emily Dickinson[M]. Cambridge：Harvard University Press，1958.

[8]  Whitman，Walt. “Song of Myself.” Rpt. in Anthology of American Litermre. Vol. 1. Ed. George Saddle River. NJ：2000. 23337. McMichael et al. Upper Saddle River. NJ：Prentice Hall，2000. 26-73.

[9]  常耀信. 美國文学简史[M]. 天津：南开大学出版社，2019：88