The Theme of Death in Poems Death is a common theme in many poems. It is viewed so differently to everyone. In the poems, "Because I could not stop for Death," "First Death in Nova Scotia," and "War is kind" death is presented by each narrator as something different. To one it is a kind gentle stranger while to another it is a cold cruel being. A kind gentleman stranger personifies death in, "Because I could not stop for Death." The narrator of the poem is a busy person, with little time, and definitely no time to die. Her carriage driver, which is death, arrives to take her into immortality.