Answer:
The “carriage” in which the speaker rides with Death is a metaphor for the instant of physical death, although it is presented as something that moves in time (a day or centuries). The speaker elaborates upon the occupants of this carriage, saying that it just held Death, herself, and Immortality. The word immortality suggests that death does not mean the end of life but a continuation of some unspecified state of being.
This description of the speaker’s two companions also uses personification, another form of figurative language. Both Death and Immortality are presented as actual beings who ride in the chariot with the speaker. Similarly, the speaker presents Death as a gentleman who is both kind and civil.
The first stanza of the poem contains a third form of figurative language, a paradox:
Because I could not stop for Death –
He kindly stopped for me –
The Carriage held but just Ourselves –
And Immortality
In these lines, Dickinson juxtaposes death and immortality, two notions that oppose each other. This juxtaposition makes the reader rethink the meaning of death by associating it with immortality.
Dickinson uses figurative language to promote a calm acceptance of death. Although death in itself is tragic, Dickinson treats it with the emotional maturity of an old friend. Her aim is perhaps to drive home the idea that life goes on after death or to show that death isn’t something we should fear because we secure the immortality of infinite time in death.
Explanation: sample answer
