Dying as Journey

The central theme of “Because I could not stop for Death” is the journey-like nature of the process of dying. The poem is not so much about death as a noun, although it appears personified as a supporting character, but rather about dying as a verb, which the poem allegorizes as a carriage ride to the afterlife. This journey is by turns seductive, comforting, and disconcerting, and its final destination is ambiguous. But above all it is a significant journey, which the poem suggests blots out the memories of both the life that preceded it and the afterlife that succeeds it.

The journey does not begin through the initiative of the dying person, in this case the poem’s speaker, who only recalls of her past life that she “could not stop for Death” (1). Instead, Death as supporting character kicks off the journey by...