Themes, symbols, and motifs come alive when you use a storyboard. In this activity, students will identify themes and symbols from the poem, and support their choices with details from the text.
As a classroom activity, students can track the rich thematic and symbolic writing Dickinson uses in her poetry. In the example storyboard above, the creator has focused on the theme of “Mortality vs. Immortality” in the poem.
Each line of the poem contains aspects of both life and death. Because of the repetition of these ideas using word choice, tone, and attitude, it is clear that this is the major theme of the poem.
Evidence of Mortality and Immortality are seen throughout the poem. The speaker's entire outlook on death and the mention of “Immortality” in the first stanza lead to the idea that she believes in an afterlife. Life after death is a sort of immortality, though not in the sense many might desire. In the last stanza, she uses the word “Eternity” to describe what she has just come to understand. She remains calm and has a ponderous tone as she recalls the ride she just took after realizing that she is actually deceased.
(These instructions are completely customizable. After clicking "Copy Activity", update the instructions on the Edit Tab of the assignment.)
Student Instructions
Create a storyboard that identifies recurring themes in "Because I Could Not Stop for Death". Illustrate instances of each theme and write a short description below each cell.
Ask students to identify probable themes based on their initial reactions to the text before digging into the analysis. Ask them to consider reoccurring themes or messages. Students can list down these themes and their insights on them for discussion later.
Teach the students how to carefully read the text. Encourage them to highlight or underline sentences that seem to be important to the topics. Talk about how important it is to pay attention to details. Students can also annotate their analysis while reading and take notes during the discussion.
Inform students that when you use textual evidence, you mean particular quotes or passages from the book that back up their analysis of the topics. Both straight quotations and paraphrased comments are acceptable. Students can also start by providing the page number and line number of the concerned text. Provide students with some trick questions and ask them to provide answers and back them up with facts from the text.
Encourage your students to examine the supporting literature they have obtained. "What does this quote reveal about the theme?" is a good example of a question to ask. and "How does it advance our knowledge of the theme?" Students can break down this evidence and get a deeper understanding of the author's perspective.
Encourage the students to make a connection between the textual evidence they have gathered and the text's main idea. Remind the students to work on how these quotes work together to support their take on the theme.
Mortality, Immortality, time passing, accepting death, and the cyclical cycle of life and death are some of the poem's key themes. Students can reflect on these themes for their analysis of the poem.
The speaker's journey with Death, a representation of the unavoidable end of life, is replete with the concept of mortality. The poem investigates the significance of death in the human experience. It also tells the readers about the speaker's experience with death and uses calm and serene imagery to represent the concept of life and death.
The sun setting is a metaphor for the conclusion of a day or the end of existence. It foreshadows the speaker's arrival at her ultimate resting place and symbolizes the last days of her life.