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Dickinson structured her poem around the common literary motif of a journey. Within the poem, this journey is depicted as a ride that the speaker takes with Death in a carriage. Together, they pass through an allegorical landscape, which the speaker describes in lines 9–12:

     We passed the School, where Children strove
     At Recess – in the Ring –    
     We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain –
     We passed the Setting Sun –

The elements in this landscape symbolize the full arc of a human life. For instance, the children playing at recess represent youth and the hopeful excitement of that time of life. By contrast, “the Fields of Grazing Grain” represent the time of mature adulthood, when the promise of youth comes to fruition. Finally, “the Setting Sun” represents death. After passing through this landscape, the speaker and Death arrive at a house that’s buried beneath a mound of soil. This underground “house” symbolizes the speaker’s grave. By the poem’s end, the reader understands that the speaker’s passage has not in fact been a journey through space. Instead, the carriage ride represents her metaphysical journey from life into death. That is to say, the speaker has journeyed from the time-bound realm of the living to the timeless eternity of the dead.

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