Emily Dickinson was born into a family of heavy Puritan tradition,which had influenced her way of life as well as the style of creating deeply.She was reasonably social in her youth,but as time went by,the impression of the Puritanism began to appear gradually.So later,she devoted herself entirely to housework and poetry,and rarely stepped out of her own house,with even no connection with her neighbors.
To the Puritans,a person by nature was wholly sinful and could achieve good only by severe and unremitting discipline.Hard work was considered as a religious duty and emphasis was laid on constant self-examination and self-discipline.So they believed that the physical phenomenal world is nothing but a symbol of God.And Dickinson’s poems just dwelled upon such metaphysical subjects as God,Death,and Immortality,following the claim of Puritanism.This one---" Because I Could Not Stop for Death",which brims over with religious theme is just a perfect evidence.As Dickinson’s poems usually had no titles,and the first sentence of a poem is taken as its title.
The poem begins with a leisurely image.At first,the protagonist feels totally at ease and the usually frightening death is described as if a familiar friend,gentle and polite.Continuingly,the poem is developed upon a basic metaphor that life is a journey.It was truly rather old a comparison,but Dickinson enriched it with her creativity and imagination:"School,where Children strove" --childhood; "Fields of Gazing Grain"--maturity; and "Setting Sun"--old age.Then “the Dews drew quivering and chill-” makes the protagonist feel terribly cold,which may mean that they are getting nearer and nearer to the tomb.But at last,his companions,Immortality and Death,finally desert him and leave him alone to go toward Eternity.
So it seems that though death cheats him and at the same time deserts him,the experience of death itself is not painful.Emily Dickinson’s poems just explain this kind of essence of life,which then lead you to a world of imagination and thinking.