Poetry Analysis Essay Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Poetry Analysis Assignment - Essay Example The speaker is conversing from beyond the grave and describing the journey she undertook with death. The speaker is now a ghost and journeys through the life before and after death together with death. Death is personified and appears to be travelling along with the speaker from life to afterlife. The setting of the poem keeps changing since the speaker and death are on a journey, which begins when the speaker is picked by death for what seems like an adventure. This paper focuses on analyzing the poem by explaining the different themes within the poem, which include mortality, immortality, love, and spirituality. This paper also seeks to analyze the different figures of speech such as personification, alliteration, and rhymes used by the author to emphasize on the themes. The poem â€Å"Because I Could Not Stop for Death† attempts to display the cycle of life. This statement depicts the speaker to have been too busy to notice the presence of death. The poem however analyses t he cycle from behind as it starts with the death. The lines â€Å"We paused before a House that seemed A Swelling of the Ground† (Dickinson, 2011, para. 5) describe the dwelling of the speaker, which shows that she is already dead and buried. The Statement â€Å"The Carriage held but just ourselves –/ and Immortality† (Dickinson, 2011, para 1) is used to depict a period or loneliness and isolation from the world. In this statement, the immortality is personified such that it appears to be accompanying the author. The author also attempts to demonstrate the loneliness that death brings. She then moves to the stage of childhood when she says â€Å"At Recess – in the Ring.† (Dickinson, 2011, para.3) This depicts the author is recalling and describing the prime years of life.  After this stage of delight, a stage full of uncertainty follows which the poet describes as he â€Å"Dews drew quivering and Chill –For only Gossamer, my Gown† ( Dickinson, 2011, para. 4). Some of the uncertainties characterizing this stage include unfulfilled needs. The speaker’s gown is not sufficient to protect her from the cold. â€Å"We slowly drove- He knew no haste† (Dickinson, 2011, para. 2) depicts death as a forward but slow process, which is like a long journey. Personification is used to emphasize the slowness of death. The main themes discussed in this poem include mortality, immortality, spirituality, and love. The theme of mortality gyrates throughout the poem since the poem is a depiction of the speaker’s attitude towards death. The speaker talks of â€Å"A Swelling of the Ground-† (Dickinson, 2011, para.5) indicating presence of a grave. The theme of immortality become evident as the speaker is already dead and yet revisits her before death, which indicates existence of afterlife. The line â€Å"Surmised the Horses’ Heads- Were toward Eternity –† (Dickinson, 2011, para.6) show s belief in life after death. The word Eternity is capitalized to indicate the place the author is travelling towards in her journey. The theme of spirituality in the poem is portrayed by use of a ghost speaker. Thus, the author must have been religious. The theme of love is evident when the speaker appears to be on a date with death though the theme is not clearly spelt. The author has utilized figurative language such as alliteration, repletion, symbolism, anthropomorphism, personification, paradox, and metaphor to accentuate the different themes. â€Å"And Immortality†