Death, the suitor, drives the carriage slowly, not wanting to rush or to go too fast for the speaker's comfort; his care seems to imply that he feels some concern for her feelings. The speaker claims that she has laid everything aside in order to prepare for "His Civility": it is almost like they are on a date.

During their carriage ride together, they pass children playing, pretty views of nature, and the sunset. Nighttime falls, and the narrator grows cold, and so Death takes her to a "House" where she can feel comfortable again. Instead of being scary or strange, Death, in this poem, acts more like a suitor than anything else.

The vision of death offered in Dickinson's poem is more of a companion than anything else.  It is seen as a force of comfort, of reverie, and of careful companionship.  The construction of death is one where the speaker is able to see examples of life through the company of death.  This is not a menacing force that causes pain and separation.  Rather, it is one where through company, one is able to view life and view the transitory nature of consciousness.  This personification is vastly different than traditional Western visions of death for there is little to either prevent embracing it or to prevent its presence.

Situational irony occurs as the poem opens. The speaker "could not stop for Death." She presumably was busy with many things to accomplish, and she simply didn't have time to quit the tasks which seemed of paramount importance from an earthly perspective. Nevertheless, Death (personified) stopped by and picked her up anyway, transporting her away from the life and the busyness she was so consumed with. What she expected to happen (continuing on with her planned life) is quite different than what actually happened (those plans came to an abrupt end when she died). This is situational irony.

It's also rather ironic that Death is personified with actions that demonstrate kindness. Typically, a representation of death is conveyed with symbolic darkness. Death is often portrayed using a threatening or ominous mood, ripping unwilling humans away from their earthly lives. It's ironic that in this poem, the speaker goes willingly with Death, even though her plans have been disrupted. She conveys no sense of fear or reservation about departing with this unknown host and climbs into his slow-moving carriage with a complete acceptance of her fate. She passes various metaphorical representations of her own life with a sense of calm, and instead of resisting her date with Death, she meets the moment with grace and resolve.

The mood of a poem is the emotional response the writer attempts to evoke in the reader through the use of connotation, situation, and experience. This poem about death exemplifies a mood of passive acceptance.

"Because I could not stop for Death—" presents an atypical reaction to a subject which is often presented with moods of fear and apprehension. However, from the first lines, the speaker conveys a quiet submission to Death's plans for her and even characterizes his actions as reflecting kindness. She demonstrates no particular worry or angst about entering this carriage driven by Death and recognizes the futility of the plans she had made prior to Death's arrival.

Death is slow and steady as he carries the speaker toward Eternity, and the speaker thus learns that she must "put away" the efforts and ambitions of her own life, which is now complete. As she passes by the metaphorical representations of her own life, she views those various periods without any emotional reaction. Even when she presumably "pause[s]" in front of her own grave, which is "scarcely visible" in the ground, she examines the spot with a quiet sense of detachment.

The speaker's patience and composure toward Death are atypical, and this creates an unexpected, accepting mood regarding her fate. The speaker never attempts to influence Death and instead journeys quietly and willingly with him to her afterlife.

A good thesis statement should allow for debate and discussion. The main character, and the main focus in "Because I could not stop For Death—" is the personification of death. Death is presented as friendly and accommodating, but also as unavoidable and unbending. A good thesis statement, therefore, might be something like the following: Death is presented in an unfamiliar, comforting light. One might then draw upon other literature from the late nineteenth century to debate just how unfamiliar Dickinson's presentation of death really is. One might also debate whether the presentation of death is indeed comforting, or in fact disconcerting. It seems comforting on one hand: indeed, the personification of death is described as behaving with "civility." On the other hand, "Death" doesn't speak or pause. It continues relentlessly, inevitably, taking the speaker towards her death whether the speaker is ready or not.

Arlo Bates, an American author, once described Dickinson's poetry as "obscure, broken, unmelodious." This criticism might be used as the basis for a more challenging thesis statement, for example, Dickinson's "Because I could not stop for Death—" gives credence to Arlo Bates's view that her poetry was often "obscure, broken, [and] unmelodious." Any response to this thesis statement would need to focus on the rhythm of the poem but would also need to unpack the word "obscure." The word "obscure" implies a lack of clarity, but the meaning of the poem seems, ostensibly, rather clear. The meaning of the poem seems simply to be that we should not be afraid of death. However, one might also infer from the poem that death is cold, unbending and unavoidable, which would seem a fearful prospect to most. Perhaps then the meaning of the poem isn't as clear as it might at first appear, and perhaps Arlo Bates was right to comment that Dickinson's poetry was obscure.

Death is personified in this poem. He is presented as a kind of chauffeur and then a seducer. But the journey is slow and leisurely, so one implication is that death is natural, even peaceful. And the personified Death is likewise a guide as much as he is a thief of life; death itself.

That being said, the opening lines suggest that one is never prepared for death.

Because I could not stop for death -

He kindly stopped for me -

The entire poem is the speaker's narration of her journey with death (or Death). This journey has lasted centuries. This is noted in the final stanza. This could mean that death is timeless or endless. The speaker is basically wandering while watching familiar signs of life. Since this centuries long journey only feels like a day, it is as if time stopped and she is now an immortal observer.

The word "passed" occurs four times. Note the pun on "past." The speaker says that the sun passed them, meaning the sun sets more quickly than they move. The speaker, Death and Immortality are outside of time. Everything to them is "past" or, everything passes them by. In this context, a potential thesis statement would be something dealing with time in life and in death. Might Dickinson be presenting an odd afterlife? Rather than heaven or hell, the dead are "past" (beyond) time, like ghosts are beyond the physical world, aimlessly (and yet peacefully) wandering.

Themes of mortality and immortality are illustrated in "Because I could not stop for Death—."

The speaker meets death with a matter-of-fact sense of acceptance regarding her fate. She had made many plans for the future, as the living frequently do, and "could not stop" to consider her own eventual earthly demise. Nevertheless, she did have an appointment with Death, who did not care about the speaker's busyness and plans. This lack of control is also evident as the speaker passes metaphorical representations of life: childhood, midlife, and the process of dying. She has no particular emotional response to her departure from life and instead approaches the journey with a sense of natural progression.

In the concluding stanza, it becomes evident that speaker has actually been dead for "Centuries," but she exists outside of earthly time constraints and feels that her death happened less than a day ago. This strengthens the division between the earthly world, where time is of paramount importance, and the afterlife, where eternity erases all significance of earthly time.

And perhaps this is the ultimate reminder of the poem. We are all on a journey toward an unknown appointment with Death, and our preoccupation with time reflects a subconscious understanding that our earthly journey is finite. By contrast, there is an "Eternity" we must face at the end of life, and we are powerless to change that eventual destiny.

I would suggest that the theme and purpose is to reconfigure the depiction of death.  The poem presents death as a part of the life process.  The theme might be calling upon individuals to reexamine their traditionally help conceptions of death and bring about the change required in order to fully understand death's role in highlighting life and the part of life that death is.  The closing of the poem seems as if that the speaker has fully understood where life is and where death is in that scope, a voice from beyond, indicating how death is not something to be feared or something where one attempts to repudiate, but rather fully embrace as a constant companion.

I see you now have many answers, but since I've written it, I'll go ahead and add mine anyway...

The primary theme in "Because I Could Not Stop for Death" is death and eternity. A secondary theme is unpreparedness. This poem is a salute to the inexorability of death, to the dogged journey it traverses. There are more than one opinion as to whether Dickinson's poem speaks of Christian consolation or not. Some view it as devoid of religious or any other consolation and see it as an expose, as it were, on the continual presence of the companion Death. Such an understanding would have been unpopular in the end of the nineteenth century even though religious conformity had lost its hold on spiritual thought.

Dickinson illuminates the primary theme of death and eternity, of the inexorability of death, by placing Immortality as a passenger in the carriage and by describing the centuries of Death's journey as "shorter than a day." The theme of unpreparedness is illuminated by, for example, the "Gossamer" gown with "Tulle" "Tippet," which is a fine see-through silken gown with loosely woven silk netting for a shawl.

I have a third interpretation of the poem from where I stand. To me, the poem "Because I Could Not Stop For Death" by Emily Dickinson is a lot about control issues. By all accounts, the poet herself was reputed to be more than a little 'buttoned-up' and I think that the somewhat humorous or irreverent tone is selp-deprecatory and self-mocking. It is as if the poet accepts her self-controlling (and even a little repressed) personality, but knows she will one day have one thing that will control her whether she likes it or not. Death comes to all of us, no matter how much control we think we have mastered over ourselves and life - we must relinquish control voluntarily or it will come for us and take it regardless at the end.

I have a slightly different view of Dickinson's purpose and theme in "Because I Could Not Stop for Death." The poetess was certainly not someone who lived life to the fullest, and while that does not always connect to the speaker ofa poem, in this case, I think that Dickinson's view of death is present.  To me, her purpose is to discuss the universality of death and to stress the truth that no one escapes it.  One can run from it or be too busy to think about it, but at some point, death "kindly stop[s]" for us.

Dickinson's whimsical tone suggests a bit of satire but also helps readers view death as just another part of the human journey or experience--similar to children playing or moving to a different home; see Stanza 5 for her description of a grave as a house.

In my opinion, this poem is about the need to live life as fully as you can while you are still alive -- so it is something of a carpe diem poem.  It is saying that life is short and death is forever so live now while you can.

I think you can see this in how the journey that the speaker and Death take (along with Immortality) goes along beside things like schools that represent life.  But then they get to the grave and the speaker realizes that that is where she will live for eternity -- a much longer thing than the short trip they have just made.

I would argue that the two main themes of this poem are closely related: the nature of death and the fact that all of life is, in a morbid sense, a journey toward death.

With regard to the nature of death, it is important to notice that death is referred to as kind. Despite the fact that we cannot stop to die (because we are too busy living), death will stop his carriage when the time is right and escort us aboard. Dickinson never portrays death as violent or sudden—rather, it is always a meandering journey.

The journey toward death is described as lengthy and peaceful, with a variety of landmarks passed along the way—from a school, to a field, to a personified setting sun, to a house.

Perhaps a simpler way to answer your question would be to say that the theme of this fantastic poem is death, portrayed in a peaceful sense as part of life's journey.

One of the strongest themes to arise out of Dickinson's poem is the embrace of the end force that is inevitably felt by all living creatures.  Dickinson creates a portrait of death which is not fearful or brutal, but rather one of calm comfort that is to visit everyone as their inevitable end is marked.  The opening lines confirm this:  "He kindly stopped for me."  The notion of characterizing death as "kindly" and gracious is a powerful reconceptualization as opposed to the standard gloomy notion.  At the same time, the vision offered through the poem is one of reflection and nostalgia, where death and the speaker visit school yards at recess, open fields, and engage in the process of thoughtful rumination on the nature of existence.  This is a vision of death that is not fearful, but rather receptive to what is awaiting all life.  In the process, a theme that arises is that one should not live their life in fear of death, but rather examine a life where there is some notion of happiness when the inevitability of the carriage "kindly" stops for all of us.

Emily Dickinson's poem, "Because I could not stop for Death," describes how death comes for us whether we are ready or not. In this poem, the speaker discusses how unprepared she was for death and how she wasn't even thinking about it, when it came upon her. The last stanza when the speaker says that "tis Centuries--and yet Feels shorter than the day I First surmised the Horses' Heads Were toward Eternity," addresses how quickly time goes by without people realizing it. For this speaker, who is picked up in a carriage by a personified Death, she recognizes that while it may seem like centuries since Death came for her, it felt shorter than a single day. By mentioning time in the final stanza, the author emphasizes the importance of realizing that life is short and before one knows it, he or she could be headed toward eternity (or death). Sometimes people may not even realize it, like the speaker in this poem.

Emily Dickinson's poem "Because I could not stop for Death—" personifies Death as a gentleman in a carriage, who invites the poet along for a ride. Death is a courteous and genteel companion, and the carriage ride is leisurely and pleasant. Dickinson describes Death as "kindly" and "Civil," and says that "he [knows] no haste."

As the carriage wends through the landscape, they pass children playing in a schoolyard, and fields ready for harvest. The carriage approaches its destination as the sun sets, "a House that seemed / A Swelling of the Ground"— that is, a grave.

Dickinson presents Death not as some kind of Grim Reaper, but as a friendly companion on life's journey, from childhood in the schoolyard to adulthood (signified by ripe grain), and onward past the setting sun to a quiet "House" where the journey ends.

Within the poem, the words that relate specifically to death are those about "stopping," "passing," "pausing," "the Ground," and "Eternity." Death is the end of life, and where the travelers stop traveling. When a person dies, they are said to have "passed away." Death itself—the moment of death—is a kind of "pause" between mortal life and "Eternity," and the poet's burial place is in the ground.

The speaker could not stop for Death because she has been too busy living and experiencing life. She mentions that, when Death "kindly" collects her in his carriage, she opts to put aside her labor and leisure, the two activities which take up most people's lives, in order to show respect and resignation towards Death. Once Death arrives, both work and play are no longer options, and the speaker accepts this fate. Now while in the carriage, accompanied by Immortality, all the speaker can do is appreciate the slow-going scenery before her, representing childhood, adulthood, and death. Slowly heading towards "Eternity," contemplation replaces work and play, a contrast to the fast-paced, active life most people lead.

It must be remembered that this poem is also allegorical, representing the end of life. The speaker's inability to stop for Death is meant to reflect the common attitude towards death in general: most people do not think about their inevitable demise, nor do they want to die. Precious few people would willingly stop for death, but in the end, death stops for everyone, since everyone's time alive is limited. This notion makes Dickinson's personification of Death appear both courteous and ominous.

I think many of us have the same attitude about dying. We know we are going to have to die someday, but right now isn't a good time because we have so many important things to do. Or at least we think they are important. But death comes when it will come whether we are ready for it or not. I think this is what the speaker means when she says she could not stop for Death. But death knew better than she did. He was kind enough to stop for her because he knew she was tired and needed the rest. She found that the things she thought were so important were not really important, and she found that the experience was very pleasant and that she had all the time in the world because she was immortal. The poem sounds as if it had been written by someone who had had a near death experience and as a result had a new perspective on death. People like this poem because it is comforting without being preachy. We don't have to worry about death because Death will take care of us in a kindly manner when the time comes.

Leo Tolstoy's moving novelette The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886) ends on a note very similar to Emily Dickinson's poem. Ivan Ilyich discovers in his last moments that there is nothing to fear of death.

He sought his former accustomed fear of death and did not find it. "Where is it? What death?" There was no fear because there was no death. In place of death there was light. "So that's what it is!" he suddenly exclaimed aloud. "What joy!"

(Educators are only supposed to answer one question per posting, so I will tackle your first question, and you can repost the others separately if you like.)

In this poem, Death is portrayed as a suitor, someone who is courting the speaker. She says that Death "kindly" stopped to pick her up in his carriage, like a young man wooing a young woman. He drives "slowly" and doesn't seem to be in any hurry, as though he enjoys spending time with her, and he behaves with "Civility"; it seems, then, that he is very polite and even gallant toward her. Death begins to seem more and more like a lover. The speaker and Death drive past a school and watch the children playing (not in a creepy way), they pass lovely and scenic fields, and they even watch the sun set together from the carriage. Night begins to fall, and she begins to grow cold, and so Death takes her to a "House" where she can be more comfortable. She has, since then, passed the time quite satisfactorily, and it feels to her as though she's only been there a very short time. Thus, Death is personified as a suitor, someone who wishes to woo the narrator.

In “Because I could not stop for Death—,” Emily Dickinson employs plenty of figurative language, including personification, metaphor, and symbolism.

First, Death is personified in the poem. He is driving a carriage, and the speaker enters into the carriage and rides with him. She puts all her earthly activities, her labor and leisure, aside to travel with Death, for they are journeying “toward Eternity.” Immortality, too, is personified as another occupant of the carriage.

Dickinson also employs several metaphors, including the extended metaphors of Death as a companion—or even a suitor—and the trip to eternal life as a carriage ride. Through these metaphors, Dickinson is making the point that there is no reason to fear dying. It is merely a transition.

Symbolism is prominent in this poem as well. The speaker's labor and leisure represent all of her earthly activities that she now puts away to go with Death. The children striving at recess symbolize the worldly struggles and trials that the speaker is leaving behind. The “Fields of Gazing Grain” (notice the alliteration on the “g”) symbolize earthly beauty. Passing the “Setting Sun” (more alliteration) stands for leaving this world.

The speaker uses symbols again when she speaks of what she is wearing, namely, only a gossamer gown and a tulle tippet (a type of shawl or scarf). These are sheer garments, and they symbolize the speaker leaving her earthly body behind. This is also symbolized by the house in the ground, which is the speaker's tomb, where she leaves her earthly body as she rides offer toward Eternity with Death and Immortality as her companions.

Interestingly for a poem about death, Dickinson never describes Death as a physical presence in great detail. The speaker uses no direct adjectives to describe Death at all. Instead, he is characterized through a single adverb and descriptions of his actions. Death "kindly" stops for the speaker, so she can have a ride in his carriage. This adverb makes Death appear courteous rather than fearsome or forceful as one tends to see in most cultural depictions of death. One gets the impression of a gentleman caller collecting a woman for a leisurely ride rather than a cruel entity ripping someone from the prime of their life.

The speaker also mentions the slow pace at which Death attends to his work:

We slowly drove — He knew no haste

And I had put away

My labor and my leisure too,

For His Civility —

Once again, this description—dominated by words like "slowly" and "civility"—serves to make Death appear gentlemanly. It also sets Death apart from human beings, who tend to be obsessed with work or play as the speaker is when she first enters the carriage. Death works in his own time, though this is presented in a relaxed way rather than as something dreadful.

While the speaker gives the reader little description of Death, the descriptions of his actions serve as adequate characterization, offering the reader a version of death that is both mysterious and comforting.

"Because I could not stop for Death—" is narrated by a first-person speaker who has died. This speaker describes what death is like.

The speaker is a nineteenth-century woman from middle class circumstances, much like Emily Dickinson. We know it is a woman because she says she is wearing a "Gown" and "Tippet," a long narrow shawl. She displays an ironic personality in the opening stanza, noting that because "she could not stop for Death," he "kindly" stopped for her. This conveys the truth that humans never have time to die and will not, in the normal run of an emotionally healthy life, seek out death. It is also startling, and the opposite of how we usually think, to describe death as "kindly." The speaker ends the stanza by displaying an awareness of the paradox that death is both an ending, a "stop," and the route to immortality of an eternal afterlife.

The speaker grows more serious, however, as death sinks in. She uses imagery to describe the experience: time slows down, passing at "no haste." In fact, it seems to stop: they pass the "Setting Sun," an apt image for death, but then the speaker notes that "rather — He passed Us." The activity of life grows more distant, like a scene being watched. Eventually, the speaker and death come to her new home, a grave.

The speaker shows herself to be an acute observer of death, one who describes it in the context of nineteenth-century small-town life.

Some adjectives that can be used to describe the tone in Dickinson's "Because I could not stop for Death" would be accepting and reflective.

The typical understanding of death is a fearful one.  The images conjured in the mind are of life ending too quickly or of melancholic helplessness. Such feelings and images are not effective tonal descriptors for Dickinson's poem.  The poem shows acceptance toward Death.  Death is a welcome visitor to the speaker.  The opening line speaks of how Death "kindly stopped."  The speaker found herself (Dickinson) unable to make the time for Death, and so Death made time for her.  

Death is shown to be a very welcoming figure in the carriage, not intimidating, and he leads the speaker to different scenes in life.  There is an acceptance expressed toward accompanying Death towards the inevitable eternity.  This tone, or the emotional position of the speaker, is confirmed in the tranquil language employed.  The speaker talks about her "house," or her grave, and this indicates an agreeable feeling toward Death, confirmed in the poem's closing.  The time with Death "feels shorter than the Day."  This helps to amplify the understanding of death as a companion.

Dickinson presents the concept of death in an unusual light.  This perception prompts the reader to reflect about death as a companion who knows "no haste."  For Dickinson, Death is not the "grim reaper" or an avenging angel of destruction. The reader is lead to reflect about their own understanding of death because of the poem's reflective and accepting tone.   

Personification is when an abstract concept is given an anthropomorphic form. Emily Dickinson's poem personifies death as a kindly carriage driver. This presentation differs sharply from the usual presentation of death as a fearsome figure in a hooded robe and scythe, which tends to make death appear vengeful and menacing. Instead, death becomes a gentlemanlike figure, stopping for the speaker and showing her a series of idyllic images representing the different stages of life (childhood, adulthood, and then the grave) before taking her into eternity itself.

The speaker also stresses the inevitability of meeting death. The opening line stresses that death stopped for her even though she could not stop for death. This relates to how death comes for everyone, whether it is expected or not. Usually, the possibility of death coming at any time is frightening, but for the speaker, it is merely a courteous gesture.

This gentle personification reflects the speaker's attitude towards death. Instead of fearing death, the speaker appears to accept it, allowing her to better appreciate the beauty of the scenes passing her by during the carriage ride. She leaves her life calmly and without regrets. She treats death as a friend rather than an entity to be dreaded.

To fully answer this question, one must understand what the term connotation means. A connotation is when a second meaning of a word is used in combination with the explicit meaning.

As for the connotations in Dickinson's poem "Because I could not stop for death", there are a few that can be justified.

1.  The personification of Death (as notated by the capitalization of the "D" to give Death and proper name) depicts death as both an abstract idea and a concrete one. Abstractly, death is something that happens to someone; it is used as a primary understanding in this sense.

As for the secondary (underlying) meaning, Death can be understood as a person who can travel with us. "He" can, in a sense, befriend us so that lose our fear of him.

2. The setting sun in the poem also has two very distinctive meanings. First, the image of the actual setting sun brings to mind the close of a day.

The secondary meaning, when used in context of the poem, defines the end of life. As the sun sets darkness sets over everything. Here, the darkness which comes with the setting sun represents the coming of death- when darkness comes for good.

3. One final connotation Dickinson sets up is the imagery depicted in the fourth stanza.

We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;

Here the speaker states that they pass a house. As readers, one can clearly understand the meaning of a house- a place where people live. The connotation exists in the second line: "a swelling of the ground." Instead of picturing a home (built of brick or wood) one can see that the speaker is looking at a grave.

A grave represents the eternal home one goes to after death.

Let's go through the poem in chronological order to consider each mention of death: 

Because I could not stop for Death / He kindly stopped for me - Explicit: Death is personified as a polite gentleman who makes time for the busy speaker. Implicit: One does not determine when and how one dies, but rather death makes the decision for one. 

He knew no haste - Explicit: Death is in no rush because he is never late. This is the benefit of always being able to determine when things happen. Implicit: Death happens when it will, never too soon or too late. 

And I had put away / My labor and my leisure too, / For His Civility - Explicit: To return his polite stopping for the speaker, the speaker puts away her distractions. Implicit: When death arrives, everything that has been keeping us so busy stops. 

We passed the School [...] the Fields of Gazing Grain [...] the Setting Sun - Explicit: Death and the speaker are slowly traveling down a road. Implicit: Death can be in any and all of these places. There is no place to which death does not have access. 

He passed us - / The Dews drew quivering and chill - Explicit: Death has a cold and unsettling effect on the things he passes. Implicit: The idea of death scares people and stops things from their normal routines. 

We paused before a House that seemed / A Swelling of the Ground -Explicit: The speaker and death stop at a small, low house. Implicit: The speaker and death stop at the speaker's grave to deposit her body before continuing on their journey. 

I first surmised the Horses' Heads / Were toward Eternity - Explicit: The speaker's journey will be eternal. Implicit: The speaker has reacher eternal life, or death. 

To get a feeling for how Dickinson viewed death, just from stanza one, you have to look really closely at the word choices that she uses.  For example, she states that death "kindly" stopped for her; her use of the word kind indicates that she did not fear death.  She viewed it in a positive light, as a welcome reprieve, as a kindness to have.  Death was not a tragedy or an awful thing, but rather a kind thing to someone suffering an illness.  Look also at how she capitalizes the name Death; giving death a capital D indicates that she respects death.  Think of the words that we capitalize:  Your Majesty, God, America, etc.  When we capitalize words, it is often a symbol of respect, reverence, and even submission.  This shows that Dickinson had a lot of respect for death and what it could do; she showed reverence for its awesome power; she even submitted to that power.

Death picks her up in a carriage; this again indicates that Dickinson feels death is a kind, polite, and respectful power.  It didn't jerk her away, dragging and pulling; it didn't yank or jostle her; instead, it kindly placed her in a carriage.  A carriage is a courtesy, a pleasant ride through town.  This shows that Dickinson viewed death positively, and as a welcome reprieve and rest.  One last indication of her feelings for death lie in the fact that the only ones in the carriage were her and death--death cared for her personally, and took the time for her alone.  This again shows that he is respectful and kind, not brutal, hurried and impersonal.  It was a personal carriage, a personal trip through the town.  He offers to gently take her away from her cares.

All in all, the first stanza reflects Death as being a kind, merciful, personal, gentle and polite force in one's life.  It is not to be feared, it is not brutal or rough, but a welcome visitor.   I hope that helped; good luck!

The speaker is sitting in a carriage with Death, who is portrayed as a kind and polite ("civil") gentleman. While I, personally, have always pictured the two sitting quietly across from each other inside a carriage that is ambling to a graveyard at a slow pace, it may be that the two are sitting side by side outside the carriage as Death drives it:

We slowly drove — He knew no haste

That line indicates that Death held the reins.

Wherever they are, the two are in close proximity in or on a carriage. The poem conveys that they are alone together, seeing the same sights passing by, joined by the journey. For instance, they view but are detached from

the School, where Children strove

At Recess — in the Ring —

The speaker does not seem at all afraid of Death; she sounds accepting of it and of her fate.

Your original question asked two questions, so I have had to edit it down to one. In this poem it is important to realise that Death is personified as a carriage driver who politely stops to collect the speaker. It is interesting to see how Dickinson uses this metaphor to "tame" or "domesticate" the most awesome and inevitable of human experiences - death. The literal elements of this metaphor are simple: dying is compared to an unexpected ride in a horse-drawn carriage.

Therefore, the speaker spends most of her time sat next to Death in this carriage. Note how the first stanza describes it:

The Carriage held but just Ourselves -

And Immortality.

This is part of the unforgettable nature of this poem - it makes us see death as nothing terrifying, but just a normal carriage ride with a polite gentleman who kindly picks us up at the right time.

Emily Dickinson's depiction of death is ironic because of how gentle and genteel it is compared to the usual presentation of death in the arts. Most cultural depictions of death are unpleasant. They stress the finality of death and how much humans fear it. Take for example the traditional depiction of death as a hooded figure wielding a scythe. Dickinson does not go this route, however. She chooses instead to present death as friendly and courteous, making it something not to be feared but respected and even desired. The speaker depicts death stopping for her, not as a cruel disruption of her life but as something kindly and akin to doing her a favor.

The way Dickinson depicts the speaker's reaction to death is also ironic. Most people fear death and react to it with a struggle, as seen in the famous poem "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night." However, the speaker in Dickinson's poem reacts calmly, even dryly, to the knowledge of her incoming demise. She even appears grateful that death has come to pick her up. This prevailing irony regarding death gives the poem a gentle tone as a whole, offering the reader a different view of the end of life than is normally presented in poetry.

One would think that an Emily Dickinson poem about Death would be a rather somber poem, but this poem takes a more positive look at the afterlife.  Dickinson personifies Death as a gentleman, mentioning his "Civility" (l. 8) and saying how he "kindly stopped" (l. 2) and "knew no haste" (l. 5) in their journey toward eternity.  And that is the tempo of the poem as well, keeping an even meter between iambic tretrameter and iambic trimeter (a pattern of unstressed and stressed syllables, in lines with 8 and 6 syllables total). Even with Dickinson's use of dashes, which tend to make some of her poems more stilted, the reader keeps with the set meter.

There is also a more dreamy, ethereal tone to this piece as the reader travels with the speaker through her memories: 

We passed the School, where Children strove

At Recess--in the Ring--

We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain--

We passed the Setting Sun-- (9-12)

There is no action besides the passing of these images, so the speaker is not interacting with them but watching her life almost pass before her.  To go along with that dreamy, ethereal tone is the image of the speaker in a "Gossamer...Gown" (l. 15), which makes one think of a ghost.  By the end of the poem, Death, Immortality, and the speaker head "toward Eternity--" (l. 24), with the dash now indicating that the afterlife is merely this continuous journey.

The poem never explicitly states that the speaker is unafraid of Death. However, her way of speaking shows her lack of fear and her detachment from what is going on.

In the first stanza, the speaker implies her lack of fear in referring to Death, personified as the carriage driver, as "kindly." In the second stanza, she has no concern over his slow progress.

The speaker may no longer fear death because she has already crossed over to the other side. The deal is done, and she accepts it. The tone of the poem reflects that detachment. The speaker is at peace with her place in eternity. It seems not perfect at this point, as she, while dead, is newly so. She is chilly, and her new home is a grave underground, both unpleasant images. She can observe but not participate in the living scenes she passes. At the same time, she is seemingly in the process of accepting that she is entering a new world of immortality.

Dickinson shows a good deal of imagination in trying to envision what the passage from life to death might be like. She describes it as both familiar—a carriage ride, watching children at a schoolhouse during recess—and unfamiliar in its eerie detachment.

Alright!  Great!  Another poem question...I love these!  In order to understand the theme of the poem we have to look at what this point is about.  I am using a particular translation of the poem but it should be fairly similar to yours:

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

Life just sort of keeps going...nobody plans to "stop for death."  This is a bit of dark humor.  Death will come for you when it is your time, ready or not.  Apparently, you get some personal time with Death to boot.

"We slowly drove, he knew no haste, 
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility."

Death feels no need to move quickly once it has you.  In death there is no need for work or fun activities.  Those things are done and in the past.

We passed the school, where children strove
At recess, in the ring;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.

Children are a good symbol for the future, that is, they are young and have a long future ahead of them.  Fields of "gazing grain," perhaps representing middle age, and the sunset, symbolizing the end of one's life.

Or rather, he passed us;
The dews grew quivering and chill,
For only gossamer my gown,
My tippet only tulle.

The sun moves past them.  It's getting chilly.  She is wearing a gown made of cobwebs and a scarf that was made of netting.

We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.

It's not really a house, it's a tomb.  That's why it is so close to the ground. She's headed for the grave.

Since then 'tis centuries, and yet each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity.

Death really isn't so bad, at least it doesn't seem.  Centuries have passed but each feels like less than a day.

The theme seems to be that Death is not something to be feared but is a natural part of life.  The character in the poem does not fight or run from death.  She does not attempt to stop the carriage nor does she react to seeing the schoolchildren.  Her tomb (she must have known what it was) looked like a home to her.  Death, indeed, treats her very civilly and is not something to be afraid of.

Emily Dickinson's well known poem "Because I Could Not Stop for Death" deals with an idealized vision of Death, who arrives by carriage and takes the narrator on a journey through the stages of life, death and the afterlife. Composed of six quatrains, the pair are first joined on their journey by Immortality. The journey is a slow one, and the narrator witnesses children, growing fields of grain and, finally, sunset. Entering a new world, the narrator faces a new home--symbolically, the grave marker--but the poem concludes with a hopeful belief that the human soul will live on.

This well-know poem by Emily Dickinson seems to be suggesting that the speaker (undoubtedly Emily Dickinson herself) was so preoccupied with other things that she never stopped to think about the fact that she was mortal and was going to have to die someday just like everybody who had gone before her. But then when she reached a certain age and had seen several loved one die, she was forced to begin thinking about mortality. This was when Death, metphorically, stopped for her and picked her up in his carriage. After her first recognition of her mortality, the truth remained with her for the rest of her life. She learned to live with it, to accept it, and to realize that it was not such a terrible thing after all. The more she meditated on the fact of Death, the more she came to realize that it only represented the end of one stage of existence and that her soul, after all, was immortal. Death was like a kindly man, someone who had known her all her life, who had stopped to give her a pleasant ride into eternity. She describes an aspect of death which has been treated by earlier poets like William Shakespeare and John Donne, and even much earlier in the Psalms of David in the Old Testament. ENotes contains extensive coverage of "Because I could not stop for death" in the reference materials.

Death is characterised in a positive way in this poem, personified a kindly gentleman, perhaps even a suitor of the speaker, who comes to call on her in his carriage with Immortality as chaperon. There is absolutely none of the fear that is usually associated with the coming of death; instead he leads the speaker gently away, past old familiar sights and landmarks, to her eternal resting place.

However, although Death does not appear frightening in any way, we should note that he is, all the same, a compelling caller who is not to be denied. The speaker remarks that:

I had put away

My labour, and my leisure too,

For His Civility- (6-8)

In other words, Death is so gently persuasive that the speaker simply cannot resist him; she 'puts away' everything else in order to be with him. She does not even attempt to challenge his quietly irresistible power. 

The view of death as presented in Dickinson's poem is one of reflection and calm.  I think it's very powerful how the poem recasts death not as some dark and brooding figure who stalks prey through fear, but rather receives death in an open and accepting manner.  I think it is a testimony to Dickinson's genius that she can take the element that strikes fear in the heart of most living beings and render a view that is not apprehensive about "the other," but rather seeks to understand and appropriate it into the scope of one's own subjectivity.  The opening lines of the poem which casts death in a "kindly" vein is unique, as it departs from a traditionalist notion of the end of mortality.  Throughout the poem, the idea of death as bringing to life the moments that make one passionate about living are also quite compelling. Descriptions of children playing at recess, fields of grain, as well as the natural beauty of the sunset are not immediate connotations of death, yet Dickinson has been able to create a picture of death as one that appreciates life.  This characterization and presentation of death is very unique in that it compels the reader to reflect on a topic that diverges from standard conception and opens the mind to receive the dawning of a new, yet compelling, image, "excellent and fair."

Let us remember that death was a perennial theme in the poetry of Emily Dickinson, and clearly it is the central subject of this excellent poem. What is notable about this poem, however, is the way that our expectations of death are defied and challenged by her description of death as a ride in a carriage with an elderly gentleman who politely stops to collect her. Dickinson, in this sense, deliberately attempts to demystify death and treat it as a natural process rather than the fearsome and terrifying experience that so many believe it to be. In particular, consider the final stanza of this poem and the way that the speaker seems only mildly surprised that they have actually died and have begun their journey on into the next life:

Since then 'tis centuries, and yet each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity.

The wonder and surprise of the speaker is notable as she only seems to realise that she has died towards the end of the poem. Death then, in this poem, is presented as something that creeps up on you when you least expect it and takes you by surprise. It is not something that is threatening, however, but a profoundly natural process that clearly is just part of the cycle of life.

It is important to remember that this poem presents just one aspect of death, and it is very important to look at Dickinson's poems thematically to discuss her treatment of other aspects of death. However, in this poem, Dickinson seems to tame or deliberately demystify one of the most unknowable human experiences by deliberately describing it to be an activity that everybody could relate to.