Because I couldn't stop for death

This is an Emily Dickinson's poem that talks about her acceptance of death as something inevitable that comes to her and has no control over it. Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) was an isolated American poet. Dickinson began writing as a teenager, some of her influences include Leonard Humphrey, principal of Amherst Academy, and a family friend named Benjamin Franklin Newton. 

She is known for her passionate and restricted verse, which deep influenced the direction of 20th century poetry. The strength of her literary voice, as well as her isolated and unconventional life, contributes to the sense of Dickinson as an unforgettable American character.

Analysis

Firstly, the speaker is dead and is a ghost or spirit thinking back to the day of her death. She's actually pretty calm about it too. Perhaps because she has been dead for so long she has not break down about it anymore, or maybe she was ready to die when she did.

Moreover, there is a setting that moves around a little because the speaker and Death are going for a ride in a carriage. It starts when Death picks up the speaker and they drive for a while through her town, past the schoolyard and fields of grain, and eventually to her burial site. 

The setting changes a little bit in the final stanza. The whole poem takes place in the eternity, but the memory of the ride has a different setting generally.

An interesting fact about this poem is that it doesn't have a title. Dickinson didn't title any of her poems, because she never meant to publish them.

The following are some themes  present in the poem:

Mortality

Mortality is probably the major theme in this poem. It's all about the speaker's attitude toward her death and what the actual day of her death was like. The speaker isn't scared of death at all, and seems to accept it.

Immortality

So, in this poem, Dickinson explores the idea of eternal life. In this poem there is life after death, which offers an explanation as to why the speaker's so calm about everything. Death's not the end, just one step closer to eternity.

Spirituality

Dickinson had to believe in some sort of life after death, but she leaves specific religious references out of the poem, and there's no evidence if the speaker is recalling the memory of her death from Heaven, Hell, or somewhere else; we only know that it's a place beyond this world.