Because I could not stop for Death Questions 8.29

1.     What does the alliteration in line 7 say about the speaker’s life? Exp. Irony (2) Civility (8) as reasons for acceptance of ride. What is death personified by?

a.     Repetition often reflects routine and predictability. In line seven it is hinted that she is an animal of habit.  This carries over to her social place and manners. The speaker respects Death because he is patient and civil with her. He waits upon her schedule as he never tires or becomes impatient. Death is personified as a man driving a carriage.

2.     Explain the allegorical details in stanza 3.

a.     Stanza three is the speaker explaining how peoples’ lives pass. Everyone has a childhood that ripens into maturity (the lush wheat fields represent this), and finally depart with the sun setting on their lives.

3.     What is the “House” (17) where the carriage paused before driving on? Purpose?

a.     A grave often makes a slight hill over the buried. The speaker’s tombstone marked grave was significant because it is really the last home a person resides in.

4.     4. Account for speaker’s impression of centuries having passed?  Where is she now?

a.     The dread the speaker felt at comprehending her death was swiftly approaching most likely made her final day agonizing. In death, the narrator has no worries and with endless time before her, there is no real need to mark it as religiously as in life.

5.     What hypothetical experience is emphasized by alteration in stanza 4? Correction in line 13?

a.     The sun passes the narrator and death along, leaving no bright sunlight. The chill she must have felt is emphasize by “ gossamer…gown” and “tippet…tulle”. It sound almost like teeth chattering in the cold.

b.     Line thirteen switched from describing the speaker passing things to the sun passing the speaker. It actually show very accurately how life goes on as individuals fade. The sun’s light, life, and warmth pass Death and the dead by.

6.     Effect of frequent alliteration on the tone of the poem?

a.     The echoing of other lines and words within the poem lends it an eerily lyrical quality. It is reminiscent of many things, the least of which are a beating heart, forgetfulness, and the clip-clop of hooves.