The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

How can the association of death with a chariot influence the reader's view about death?

In this poem, Emily Dickinson, in a short and concise format, makes it clear that death is not the end, but a new beginning.

The poet, in the first stanza of the poem, makes it clear that the destination of the chariot is immortality, a positive outcome of death.  Living forever is an idea that causes people to pause and consider, the secret dream that lingers in the heart of many, everyone wants to live forever. 

Therefore, that is death's promise, to live forever. Passing into immortality, as the poet suggests, should make the reader more comfortable with death, more accepting of its inevitability. 

In the last stanza, the poet reinforces her belief in the afterlife by telling us, that she has spent centuries since death caught up with her, in eternity, which she obviously enjoys, because the days and years pass without notice. 

So the suggestion is that death is a pleasant experience, and that each of us should look forward to joining her in eternity, and the immortality that awaits us.

"Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality."

"Since then 'tis centuries but each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity." (Dickinson)

A chariot is associated with nobility and royalty or high social status, so the fact that Emily Dickinson uses the chariot when talking about death signifies that the reader should not be frightened or scared about death, that death is only a vehicle to use to get to Heaven.  She seems to be saying that in death, no matter what social status or class people are, in death, they are ALL transported to Heaven by a chariot.