Because I could not stop for Death — / He kindly stopped for me —”
-- Speaker (Lines 1 – 2)

Importance: These lines open the poem and, because Dickinson herself left no title, the first line has long served as the de facto title. They are significant because they establish the poem’s initial tone toward the process of dying, which will gradually change with the progression of the stanzas. They are an example of chiasmus, a type of rhetorical inversion, which here puts the speaker and Death on equal footing and creates a comforting start for the beginning of the speaker’s journey.

We slowly drove — He knew no haste / And I had put away / My labor and my leisure too, / For His Civility —”
-- Speaker (Lines 5 – 8)

Importance: These lines, making up the second quatrain, represent the relaxed, comforting nature of the early journey. Agency alternates or else is shared between the speaker and Death, with each doing something for the other...