Emily Dickinson

I Heard A Fly Buzz When I Died
Poem lyrics of I Heard A Fly Buzz When I Died by Emily Dickinson.

I heard a fly buzz when I died;
The stillness round my form
Was like the stillness in the air
Between the heaves of storm.

The eyes beside had wrung them dry,
And breaths were gathering sure
For that last onset, when the king
Be witnessed in his power.

I willed my keepsakes, signed away
What portion of me I
Could make assignable, and then
There interposed a fly,

With blue, uncertain, stumbling buzz,
Between the light and me;
And then the windows failed, and then
I could not see to see.

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Essay: Buzz
Time written: 40 minutes.

In this untitled poem, Emily Dickinson looks into the future at her death, as if everything were in the present. Through the use of two trademark themes - nature and death, Dickinson paints an elaborate portrait of the moments of her death and depicts to the reader with clever diction, imagery, and tone, her vision of what essentially, would be her last moments of consciousness.

Throughout this poem, Dickinson depicts the image of a fly buzzing around the room where she lay, using onomatopoeia to instill in us the lonely sounds of an insect, and how although she is now dead, the fly continues to buzz. She employs a sullen, yet tranquil and harmonious tone throughout the piece to portray her own peaceful but sad and questioning feelings towards her death. She says "the Stillness in the Room was like the Stillness in the Air," capitalizing Stillness, Room, and Air, showing further unity between the three ideas, that in her state of nothingness, there still exists a luculent world of peace around her.

As Emily progresses through the frail image of her funeral, she shows that although she had "wrung" the eyes of the others dry, providing some sort of intimate, human connection with them, she begins to see them as strangers waiting for "the King" to come and show his grace, when they really were supposed to continue to remember and mourn. She signs away her keepsakes, saying to them, "hey, take what you want you unspiritual assholes!" knowing that the physical imperfect materials of life are worthless, and starts to become more aware of the spiritual quietude awaiting her.

Twice in the poem Emily uses the word "Between" to show distance and time between the beginning of life, where it ends, and who she is in the middle of all of it. She starts to depict herself as the world, saying at the end of the poem that there was a "Blue (morose), uncertain stumbling Buzz between the light (afterlife) and me (the unification of her body and her environment - the world which she has become a part of).

As she knowingly becomes one with her surroundings, she of course, has become one with the fly. And as she unifies with the fly, the once "quiet room with a loud pin falling to the floor" of a buzz becomes a sad, and emotional "Blue" buzz. When Emily finally understands her harmony with the universe, her "Windows", her eyes, disappear, and she is able to drift into an unconscious state where she can see true life, and not see just for the sake of looking. "and then I could not see to see".

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My commentary at the top of the page (to the teacher, right after I had written it):
Note to Ms. L - I start calling her Emily (instead of Dickinson) because I started to fall in love with her. Fuckin' crazy. Crazy Emily! Crazy me! Give this paper a five!

My teacher's commentary to me:
George-
You really had a feel as to what she was trying to express, the unexpressable... which is, of course, poetry.
Grade: 8- (Out of 9. AP scoring)

Her commentary to what I had written at the top of the page:
I was hoping you would (fall in love with her). I find her so terrifying and real & disturbing. (Yeah, that ampersand was there.)

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My aftermath commentary: The reason I wrote this all down in my journal was because it made me happy to finally write a semi-decent essay for once. It was pretty motivating. I, of course, being the shitty writer I am, let my heart get in the way of things a couple paragraphs in and sort of lost sight of the entire thing.

Also, I'm writing a story right now which involves a lot of themes spoken about in this poem. It'll probably have a filler page in the beginning including this poem.

To Dasha:
I'm sorry I did this. I know it seems condescending. I love you though.