“Poets often withhold certitude, which can at the same time empower readers to think creatively.” The quote applies in the poem "Because I could not stop for Death" deeply. The poem provides readers a fair amount of "certitude" but leaves a certain amount of space for them to understand and creates personal views to the concept of death. This combination of certitude and ambiguity allows readers to have a basic idea of Dickinson's understanding to Death while creating their own conclusion about it utilizing the space she left.
What readers can see clearly is that the author characterize herself as an accompany of the death, travels through several places, such as "the school", "the ring" or "the setting sun". In the author's opinion, death exists everywhere in our dailies based on those example, and most importantly, every stages of our lives. The travelers(author and death) goes from school, which here indicates the youth of human beings, to the tomb which it the end of lives. However, one of the ambiguity was presented here, that she did not clearly tell the readers it was at a graveyard but rather used vague expressions to imply that. "We paused before a House that seemed A Swelling of the Ground – The Roof was scarcely visible – The Cornice – in the Ground – ", and it creates a mysterious atmosphere. This process of going through every stage of lives is certain, that readers are able to know the author's perspective as a "death carrier". "Since then, 'tis centuries and yet feels shorter than the day", her description here draws a conclusion of the process of going from youth to graveyard, that death devours human beings' lives in such a short time.
What readers can see clearly is that the author characterize herself as an accompany of the death, travels through several places, such as "the school", "the ring" or "the setting sun". In the author's opinion, death exists everywhere in our dailies based on those example, and most importantly, every stages of our lives. The travelers(author and death) goes from school, which here indicates the youth of human beings, to the tomb which it the end of lives. However, one of the ambiguity was presented here, that she did not clearly tell the readers it was at a graveyard but rather used vague expressions to imply that. "We paused before a House that seemed A Swelling of the Ground – The Roof was scarcely visible – The Cornice – in the Ground – ", and it creates a mysterious atmosphere. This process of going through every stage of lives is certain, that readers are able to know the author's perspective as a "death carrier". "Since then, 'tis centuries and yet feels shorter than the day", her description here draws a conclusion of the process of going from youth to graveyard, that death devours human beings' lives in such a short time.
The general ambiguity in the poem was on one hand from those vague, abstract terms such as "eternity", "civility", and also from the lack of explanation of death. Indeed, the author used a few descriptions to death from her view as "accompany" and "experience", but she really wanted the readers to build up their own analysis to the existence of death. For example, "Or rather – He passed Us – The Dews drew quivering and Chill – For only Gossamer, my Gown – My Tippet – only Tulle – ", this whole stanza is consist of a list of realistic terms with blurry metaphors inside. The goal is to illustrates how death is able to penetrate every bit of our lives, but her way of expressing it really connects readers to the death itself. Lastly, the usage of abstract words especially those that describe longevity are what brings deep reflection on our lives. If "eternity" and "immortality" are not sufficient on describing death, there aren't any better words that do so.
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