Because I could not wait for death

On Emily Dickinson
&
Because I could not stop for Death

Emily Dickinson, Born 1830, Died 1886.Seems to me, from evidence to be one of the beautiful minds of all time. But what goes into the mix of creating such astonishing simplicity at the same time as such wisdom and grace? She produced 1789 poems in her fifty-five years, many considered to be among the best. Although she certainly acquired some of her eccentricities from her fears and her fears from her past and mind, the person they produced was extraordinary. Although I likely will not find anything new, I hope to find some light to shed.
After she studied at the Amherst Academy for seven years in her youth, she spent a short time at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary before returning to her family's house in Amherst.

In 1845, a religious revival took place in Amherst, resulting in 46 confessions of faith among Dickinson's peers. She wrote to a friend the following year: "I never enjoyed such perfect peace and happiness as the short time in which I felt I had found my savior." She went on to say that it was her "greatest pleasure to commune alone with the great God & to feel that he would listen to my prayers." After her church-going ended, about 1852, she wrote a poem opening: "Some keep the Sabbath going to Church – / I keep it, staying at Home". Religious revival in America has a long tradition. It is an emotional time and one of great (if unfounded) security and simplicity. I feel it is likely this period was a contributor of these characteristics in Emily. Certainly they are evident in Because I Could not Stop for Death.
Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.
She treats Death as though a suitor come to call, and then she gives in to him and welcomes him.
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.
These lines seem to speak of phases of life to many analysts. The school as the lessons, in the ring as the youth, fields of grain as summer (adulthood), the setting sun as death.
Or rather, he passed us;
The dews grew quivering and chill,
For only gossamer my gown,
My tippet only tulle.
She uses three references here, gossamer my gown: is a thin wedding dress for the speaker's marriage to Death. The speaker has been gone a long time and will welcome Death as a lover and friend.
Her tippet: Scarf for neck or shoulders, and 3...tulle: Netting, indicate she is cold because of her clothes, but also because of death. Others say she is dressed lightly because she didn’t know it would be so long a journey, and so did not dress warmly.
We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.
The house is her tomb and these things have been worn away by time because the speaker has been dead a long time. The last stanza emphasizes this by reinforcing how long the speaker has been dead. It seems that by the time death stopped for her, she was very ready. The mound was a swelling of the ground because it was the grave.

Since then 'tis centuries, and yet each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity.
Most people seemed to think the horse’s heads were pointed to the East as it represents eternity and that the soul is eternal in spite of death.
All things considered, this poem points out, I believe, the great fascination and fear Emily Dickinson had of Death. A series of deaths in her later years, starting with her father, Emily Norcross Dickinson and Otis Lord seem to have taken the life from her. It is clear her prolific output of poetry came to a halt at this time. The world was blessed with a poet unlike any other in Emily, and I for one will not forget. I guess I hope you are warm in your carriage, Emily.