Question

emily dickinson uses personification throughout poem “712”. explain what she personifies in the poem. then, analyze the impact of her use of personification on the overall meaning of the poem. be sure to use specific details to support your answer

Answer 1

In poem "712" Emily Dickinson personifies death.   "Because I could not stop for death he kindly stopped for me".  The narrator is giving human characteristics to death, "He" stops for her with his carriage, they slowly drive past common or everyday locations and scenes.  "We passed the school where children strove at recess".  Dickinson describes "him", (death), as a calm and polite character: "We slowly drove – He knew no haste /And I had put away /My labor and my leisure too /For His Civility".  The personification of  death, it's civilized manners, create a specific impact.  We don't sense death as a violent situation, the narrator does not suffer, feel pain or anguish, while experiencing death.  In the poem Death is a more like a guide that takes her on a slow ride.  Nevertheless, there is a sense of strangeness, of darkness, since the narrator is being guided towards the end of her life.