Introducing the Poem

Literary Focus: Irony

Reading Skills: Summarizing a Text

Because I could not stop for Deathby Emily Dickinson

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Because I could not stop for Deathby Emily Dickinson

Death is close enough at hand so we do not need to be afraid of life.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Because I could not stop for Deathby Emily Dickinson

• Death arrives for the speaker in a horse-drawn carriage.

In this poem, Dickinson “tames” the fearful idea of death with a gentle metaphor, or figurative comparison.

• They ride past a schoolyard, fields of grain, and the speaker’s graveside—toward their ultimate destination.

Because I could not stop for Deathby Emily Dickinson

In 1950, the great American composer Aaron Copland created a musical tribute to Dickinson’s poetry.

Poems Set to Music

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Aaron Copland

Because I could not stop for Deathby Emily Dickinson

Irony is a discrepancy

Because I could not stop for Death Literary Focus: Irony

• between appearances and reality

• between what seems appropriate and what actually happens

• A pleasant carriage ride turns out to be a trip of eternal significance.

The success of this poem depends on irony.

Because I could not stop for Death Literary Focus: Irony

• A lighthearted, witty tone contrasts with the seriousness of the subject, death.

As you read, pay careful attention to details that give the poem an ironic twist.

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Dickinson uses time in an unusual way in this poem.

Because I could not stop for Death Reading Skills: Summarizing a Text

As you read, pause at the end of each stanza and note when the events are occurring.

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