In "Because I could not stop for death," is Dickinson arguing that death is a part of the endless cycle of nature?One should not fear the death...

The poem "Because I could not stop for Death" by Emily
Dickinson has a tremendously ironic effect as there is a blithe tone to the poem that is
at odds with the theme of death.  In Dickinson's poem, dying is compared to an
unexpected carriage ride with a very gentlemanly driver, who "kindly" stops for the
speaker because she is too busy with life.  But, the ride in the horse-drawn carriage is
not to the end; instead the speaker is accompanied by
"Immortality."

That death is part of the endless cycle of
nature is evinced in the passage of the carriage past children playing in the
schoolyard, the fields of productive grain, and then the setting sun.  These metaphors
represent youth, productive adulthood, and old age respectively. Even the tomb is part
of nature as it appears to be "A Swelling of the Ground."  And, the speaker has, indeed,
achieved immortality as she yet addresses the reader from her
grave,

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

Clearly, Dickinson's
metaphor of death as a carriage-ride imaginatively captures the powerful and inevitable
experience of all humanity with a playfulness and light tone that belies any unnatural
feeling.