ANALYZE POETRY ‘’THE CHARRIOT’’ By Emily Dickinson

The Chariot

By : Emily Dickinson

Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.
We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility.
We passed the school, where children strove
At recess, in the ring;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.
Or rather, he passed us;
The dews grew quivering and chill,
For only gossamer my gown,
My tippet only tulle.
We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.
Since then 'tis centuries, and yet each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity

Analyze Poetry

Rhyme

The isn’t regular (meaning it doesn’t follow a particular  pattern) but there is internal rhyme in this poem.

The carriage held but just ourselves (line 3)

We slowly drove, he knew no haste (line 5)

We passed the fields of gazing grain            (line 11)

The dews grew quivering and chill   (line 14)

Feet

Example :

Because I could not stop for Death,             8 sylable-( Tetrameter )
He kindly stopped for me;                            6 sylable-(Trimeter)
The carriage held but just ourselves              8 sylable-(Tetrameter)
And Immortality.                                          4 sylable-(Dimeter)

Theme

›  Mortality

Mortality is probably the major theme in this poem. It’s all abour the speaker’s attitude toward her death and what the actual day of her death was like. Dickinson paints a picture of the day that doesn’t seem to far from the ordinary(that is,if you’re used to having a guy named Death take you out on dates).

›  Immortality

We find out that the memory of the speaker’s death day is being told centuries into the afterlife. So, in this poem, Dickinson explores the idea of perpetual life. In this poem there is life after death, which offers an explanation as to why the speaker’s so calm about everything. Death’s not the end, just one step closer to eternity.

  Atmosphere

›   

Mood

We can almost imagine this poem set to the even sound of the horses’clomping hooves; the real conversation is going on between the speaker and Death in the carriage, but the hooves are always in the background. Very cool stuff. So if we read this poem, make our feel is amazing.

›   Tone

Who is the speaker,can she or he read minds, and ,more importantly, can we trust her or him?The speaker is dead. But the even cooler thing is that we don’t know this for sure until the last stanza. So the speaker is a ghost or spirit thinking back to the day of her death. She’s actually pretty calm about it too. Maybe because she’s been dead for so long she’s not so freaked out about it anymore, or maybe she was ready to die when she did;either way ,she’s completely at ease with it now and looks back at that almost fondly. This was a memorable day for her,though. Centuries have passed and she got chilly, what the grave looked like, and she especially remembers the feeling she got when she looked at those horse heads

Point of view

q  Spirituality

well,the speaker is ghost,which means Dickinson had to believe in some short of life after death ( and we do know that she grew up in a Christian family ). But she leaves specific religious references out of poem,and we do not know f the speaker is recalling the memory of her death from Heaven.,Hell, or somewhere else,we only know that is a place beyond this world.

q   Love

The speake’s tone in the poem makes the reader believe the speaker does not fear death, butfeels the opposite toward it.If the poem did not explore death with an underlying theme of love,the acceptance of death might eventully be hard for the reader to belive.

q  Live Hood

It is this kindness, this individual attention to her.

Style

Figurative Language

Alliteration 

›  Because I could not stop for Death    (line 1)

›  he knew no haste                                (line 5)

›  My labor, and my leisure too              (line 7)

›  At recess, in the ring                          (line 10)

Anaphora

›  We passed the school, where children strove

     At recess, in the ring;

›  We passed the fields of gazing grain,

›  We passed the setting sun.                             (lines 9-12)

Paradox 

›  Since then 'tis centuries, and yet each 

›  Feels shorter than the day

›  I first surmised the horses' heads        (lines 21-23)

 Personification

›  We passed the setting sun.

›  Or  rather, he passed us               :                    (lines 12-13)

Symbolizm

›  The Carriage

The carriage in this poem is the mode of transportation to the afterlife.we have to get where we’re going somehow.

›  The sunset

The sunset in this poem as a symbol and foreshadowing of death.

›  The house

The house is a metaphor for the grave.

›  The Horse

The horse in this poem as a symbol of immortality.

The whole interpretation

›  The whole of poem explained about death and eternity. Death is no frightening, or even intimidating, reaper, but rather a courteous and gentle guide, leading her to eternity. The speaker feels no fear when Death picks her up in his carriage, she just sees it as an act of kindness, as she was too busy to find time for him.