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
This poem may not only be about death, but more so about the death of a female’s individuality when she enters into marriage. Upon her return from Mount Holyoke Dickinson was frustrated by the expected role of a single woman. A woman in mid nineteenth century America would have been expected to re-arrange their life around their husband’s. Seeing as how Dickinson did not marry I think that what she may be saying is that death is the only man who will ever slow her down. Possibly because he “kindly stopped for her” unlike a mortal man would have. Throughout the poem Dickinson alludes to death’s patience, and also them as a couple essentially. In lines such as, “We slowly drove” and “We paused before the House.” Death and her are moving as one, he is letting her take her time and also not trying to control her. That is why in the end of the poem she willingly lets him take her.
Because I Could Not Stop for Death