Emily Dickinson Group

Question:

poem
poem
Student
High School - 12th Grade

What is the metaphor of Dickson's "we paused before a House?"

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Posted by poem on Sunday November 2, 2008 at 7:51 PM and tagged with emily dickinson, metaphor, stop for death.

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  1. timbrady Teacher
    College - Senior

    eNotes Editor

    The general sense about this image is that the carriage that help her and death have arrived at the cemetery, and that the "House" is a mausoleum, the place where she is going to "be" for eternity.  The choice of the word "house" suggests a comfort with death ... you have a house, generally a comfortable place,  while you are alive, and another for your "time" in eternity.  The house reference is also reminiscent of another of her poems, "The bustle in a house" where she speaks of the experience of death, and ends with "The sweeping up the heart/And putting love away/We shall not want to use again/Until eternity." Both poems express a comfort with eternity where we shall get to use the love for another that we can no longer experience at their death.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/because-could-not-stop-for-death-sa...

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    Posted by timbrady on Sunday November 2, 2008 at 8:47 PM