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Each stanza in Dickinson’s poem follows an ABCB rhyme scheme, which is typical for many poems and songs written in common meter. This rhyme scheme places extra stress on the second and fourth lines of each stanza and hence organizes each stanza into two clear line pairs. Yet despite this rigid organization, the rhymes in “Because I could not stop for Death” are almost always slant, meaning they sound similar but don’t quite form an exact rhyming match. In fact, there is only one example of exact rhyme in the entire poem, and it appears in the first stanza. But though “me” and “Immortality” (lines 2 and 4) do form an exact rhyme, the pair is still unusual for the way Dickinson rhymes a monosyllabic word with a polysyllabic one. Later, in the fifth stanza, she uses what’s known as identical rhyme, which occurs when the same word rhymes with itself: here, “Ground” and “Ground” (lines 18 and 20).

Aside from these pairs, all other rhymes in the poem are slant. Some of the rhyme pairs are just slightly off. For example, “chill” and “Tulle” (lines 14 and 16) feature different vowels, but they both end with the same L sound. Other rhyme pairs in the poem are significantly more slant. For example, “Ring” and “Sun” (lines 10 and 12) have different vowels, but they also conclude with slightly different consonant sounds. Both words contain an N, but whereas “Sun” ends with the pure consonant, “Ring” ends with the more nasal NG sound. On the one hand, the frequent use of slant rhyme has the practical effect of undercutting the intrinsic musicality of the poem’s meter, keeping it from sounding too lively. On the other hand, Dickinson’s slant rhyme may be said to reflect a philosophical stance. By consistently frustrating our expectations for exact rhyme, Dickinson emphasizes the essential mystery at the heart of her poem. We do not—and cannot—know what happens after death. Even though certain religious and spiritual traditions have suggested ways that the afterlife might mirror life, there is in fact no certainty that the two will form a neat “rhyming pair.”

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