stop for Death—

He kindly stopped for me—

The Carriage held but just Ourselves—

And Immortality.

Death here is personified as a courtly gentleman who bears the speaker away in his carriage in which Immortality is also present. The whole drive is presented as a gracious outing with a genteel suitor and a third figure perhaps as a chaperone, eventually getting closer to the speaker’s present home, the cemetery. There is none of the fear or apprehension which is usually associated with death and dying, although there is perhaps an indirect moral that one should remain mindful of one’s inevitable demise.

Dickinson herself was extremely mindful of death, as she experienced the deaths of many people that she knew, and it is one of the central themes in her poetry. This particular poem is one of her most celebrated, exhibiting her usual taut style and oblique approach to her subject. The poem creates a dreamy, almost surreal scene, mixing surreality with a semblance of normality in its depiction of a journey through familiar places towards a stopping point more final than any other.

The poem has two characters, Death and the speaker.

Death is described as a gentleman riding in a carriage. He is "kindly" because he stops his carriage and lets the speaker in. He is also described as unrushed and as offering "civility."

These are unusual characteristics to attribute to death, which is not often described as kind or civil or as a gentleman. Death is more often seen as cruel, rude, and uncivilized.

The other character is the poem's speaker, who rides with Death in his carriage. It might be assumed that this character is a female because she wears a gown (traditional of women during Dickinson's time period). She seems particularly calm, accepting what comes without a struggle.

As the poem goes on, we come to question the speaker's characterization of Death as kindly. As the sun sets—in other words, as she passes into the realm of death—the speaker becomes cold, saying

The dews grew quivering and chill,
For only gossamer my gown,
My tippet only tulle.

A kinder host might have provided her with a blanket or cape. She also mentions that the house they "pause" at is underground, saying:

The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.

Death, after all, might not be so pleasant.

The speaker is a person who has died centuries ago and is reflecting upon the day Death showed up to take her to her eternity.

We know that she felt like she was just too busy to die:

Because I could not stop for Death –

There were too many things to do and accomplish. She had no time to stop, and death wasn't on her radar. Nonetheless, Death showed up and took her.

She is accepting of her fate. There is no indication that she attempted to resist the inevitable, and she willingly goes along with Death to review her life, represented through the metaphors of the schoolhouse (her childhood), the gazing grain (her midlife), and the setting sun (her death).

As she takes this journey with Death, she even sees the place where she is buried:

We paused before a House that seemed
A Swelling of the Ground –
The Roof was scarcely visible –
The Cornice – in the Ground –

There is no indication of fear here; she seems quite resigned to her fate and also seems to take in the details of the journey. The words come slowly as the speaker narrates her journey. Note those dash endings at the ends of lines asking the reader for a long pause. Also note the use of caesura, which is a pause within a line of poetry, such as in this example:

Since then – 'tis Centuries – and yet

All of these pauses indicate that the speaker is reflective and relaxed about her present state. She is not in a rush, and the words don't tumble out endlessly. The narrative is controlled.

It has been centuries since the speaker died, yet it all seems "shorter than the Day" when she first surmised that she was headed toward eternity. This perspective reminds the reader that the worries and busyness of living are only a vapor in the mists of time, and eternity is of far greater consequence.

The protagonist/speaker is, first of all, dead. She is greeted by Death, personified. Death arrives on a carriage to pick up the protagonist. Death functions here like a date or one who is seducing the protagonist. As if to put her mind at ease, Death has brought Immortality (also personified) with him to act as a chaperon. The protagonist is seduced or at the least, she feels comfortable during this journey with Death: 

We slowly drove--He knew no haste

And I had put away

My labor and leisure too,

For His Civility--

At a point during the fourth stanza, the protagonist senses a chill in the air, perhaps a first sense of foreboding in what had been, up to that point, a comfortable ride. Finally, the protagonist concludes that these centuries since they began their ride (when she first "surmised" she was headed for the grave - Eternity), have only felt like one day. In this eternity, she has a different sense of how time passes. The protagonist finds herself, in death, in a state where/when time has stopped; or, being in the eternal, time has become meaningless. This could imply a number of things. Consider that the ride itself lasts forever. Throughout all of this, the protagonist speaker seems to take it in stride; it's as if death, in being eternal, is an endless (centuries) but also a fleeting ("shorter than the Day") event. Therefore, the protagonist is simply trying to understand what death is exactly. The ride gives her a chance to do this.