ON BECAUSE I COULD NOT STOP FOR DEATH
温州师范学院外语系98英本（2）班 叶茫茫
Abstract: Death and eternity are the major themes in most of Emily Dickinson's
poems." Because I could not stop for death "is one of her classic poems.
Through the analysis, this essay clarifies infinite conceptions by the dialectical
relationship between reality and imagination, the known and the unknown. And it
tells what's eternity in Dickson's eyes.
Keywords: death, eternity, finite, infinite
Introduction
Emily Dickinson（1830-1886）, the American best-known female poet ，was one of the
foremost authors in American literature. Emily Dickinson 's poems, as well as
Walt Whitman's, were considered as a part of "American renaissance";
they were regarded as pioneers of imagism. Both of them rejected custom and received
wisdom and experimented with poetic style. She however differs from Whitman in
a variety of ways. For one thing, Whitman seems to keep his eye on society at
large; Dickinson explores the inner life of the individual. Whereas Whitman is
"national" in his outlook, Dickinson is "regional".
Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, on December 10,1830. She lived
almost her entire life in the same town (much of it in the same house), traveled
infrequently, never married, and in her last years never left the grounds of her
family. So she was called "vestal of Amherst". And yet despite this
narrow -- some might say -- pathologically constricted-outward experience, she
was an extremely intelligent, highly sensitive, and deeply passionate person who
throughout her adult life wrote poems (add up to around 2000 ) that were startlingly
original in both content and technique, poems that would profoundly influence
several generations of American poets and that would win her a secure position
as one of the greatest poets that America has ever produced.
conclusion
No one can delay or prevent death. Most people died unexpectedly, who are not
ready to stop everything they have and want to do. Their relatives and their friends
also are not ready to accept it. It seems that people only have finite time on
earth. Before death arrives, we should fulfill dreams without regrets and should
love the ones surrounding us. Emily Dickinson once wrote, after she came to know
the life after death lies permanently in the beloved's memory, that the one who
bestowed eternity on her she would send memory in return.
Note
1 9. played: the existing manuscript version of poem 712 reads "strove"
(The Manuscript Books of Emily Dickinson, edited by R. W. Franklin in two volumes
(Cambridge, Mass., and London: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1981:
I, 509-10; fascicle 23; PS 1541 A1 1981 ROBA).
10. Their lessons scarcely done: the existing manuscript version reads "At
recess in the ring".
12. The existing manuscript version adds one stanza after this line:
Or rather He passed us.
The dews drew quivering and chill
For only gossamer, my gown,
My tippet, only tulle.
A tippet is a cape or scarf worn on the shoulders, and tulle is sheer silk material.
16. cornice: projecting mould that overhangs a roof or wall
but a mound: the existing manuscript version reads "in the ground".
17. but each: the existing manuscript version reads "and yet".
Bibliography
1. http://www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/rp/poems/dickn32c.html
2. http://longman.awl.com/kennedy/dickinson/biography.html#introduction
3. http://www.sappho.com/poetry/historical/e_dickin.html#biography
4. http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~idris/Poetry/Dickinson.htm
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