APE Poetry Project
Because I Could Not Stop for Death is about a woman who is on a sad but tranquil carriage ride with her suitor, Death, riding towards eternity. The general tone of the poem is soft and wistful, yet quite morbid, with a sort of quiet acceptance of the death that will take her. We tried to convey that through our voices by speaking very slowly and wistfully. We dragged out the entire poem and said it almost monotonously because that's how Dickinson portrays death: eternal and bland. Rupa recited the first four stanzas playing the part of the passing woman. Kanmani and Minji both played the part of the suitor, Death. In the poem, what they see in the carriage ride seems near, yet very distant because of Death/eternity/Immortality in the way, so we recited stanzas one and two close to the microphone and distanced ourselves as the poem went on. Within the lines said by Rupa, Minji said "We slowly drove," because the journey is being taken by the two together. Kanmani whispered along at the "we passed" parts in the third stanza for that same reason. During the fourth stanza, Minji started to chime in: this is when Death truly starts to take over the woman and the tone becomes colder and a bit more intense, which is why there were subtle pitch variances in those lines. It eventually shifted into Death reciting the rest of the poem: the fifth stanza by Minji and the last by Kanmani because there is a tone change between the fifth and the sixth stanzas. It steps away from the story of the carriage ride to what we interpreted as the woman's moment of real acceptance, but at that point, Death has completely consumed her. In terms of video editing, the very slow transitions parallel the slow and subtle moving of the carriage as they pass divergent events as well as the sunset. Also, the fading circle symbolizes the eternal nature of death.
The poem by Emily Dickinson connects to Waterland on many different levels. Water is very similar to death in many ways. Water ebbs and flows on a singular direction. It's necessary for life, but it can always bring about destruction as well. Similarly, death can save people who are suffering but it can also bring grief to those who are suffering from losing a loved one. Another element that we noticed was the idea that death is part of a natural cycle. History is also a never-ending cycle that affects the past and present. In the poem, Dickinson explains how death is not the end. Death is eternal and it is part of the natural cycle of life, yet people are afraid to look back upon history and death. Both history and death are topics that bring upon sorrow as well as happiness. Death is portrayed as ambiguous in both the poem as well as the novel. Dick's death is very vague and not explained fully. Also in both poems children are portrayed as the optimistic future generation. Both the poem as well as the novel encompasses flashbacks.