A Study of I heard a Fly buzz when I died

by Emily Dickinson Emily Reed 8 MWF

In the poem I heard a Fly buzz when I died

Emily Dickinson communicates with the

audience, her ideas about the uncertainty of death. Dickinson uses poetic elements such as tone, imagery, metaphors, rhyme, and line structure to captivate a reader throughout the poem. I heard a Fly buzz when I died consists of 16 lines evenly divided into 4 stanzas. This

poem describes a person on his/her deathbed waiting for his/her final moment. The narrator of the poem tells the audience of his/her experience as they are dying. The speaker addresses the audience rather than someone in the poem, this creates a sensation of personalized involvement for a reader. The speaker mentions other people but only as part of the description. Throughout the poem the audience is told of the room where the speaker lays waiting to die. Then, at the end of the last stanza, There interposed a Fly speaker dies. The first stanza of the poem introduces the reader to the subject that will soon play a dominant role in the poem: the fly. The description of the room begins after this introduction and helps to explain why the speaker was able to hear a minute sound such as the buzz of the fly. The stillness in the Room (line 2) provides a description of the somber setting. The next two lines add emphasis to this somber stillness. before the

The second stanza incorporates objects inside of the somber room. The stanza tells of people who have cried their eyes dry and were now holding their breaths in preparation for the last Onset (line 7) which in some faiths, means death, When the King Be witnessed in the Room (lines7,8). These two lines simply mean that when death comes, it is expected that the

king, whomever they believe is God or Death itself, comes to the room and claims the dead. These lines serve another purpose, though, and that is to build the expectation and set up for the seemingly anticlimactic entrance of the fly. The narrator is ready to die. He/she knows death is coming. I willed my Keepsakes signed away what portion of me be Assignable (lines 9-11). This is normal for a dying person

to do. These lines in the poem merely draw out the time between the exposition and the climax with already implied information, building anticipation for the reader. and then it was There interposed a Fly (line 12). While waiting on an extravagant entrance of the King (line 7) the

climactic stillness is interrupted by this fly which has already been an underlying annoyance in the poem because of the first line introducing its buzz. In the next stanza the fly, though not through any unrealistic metamorphosis, becomes larger; more prevalent. The fly goes between the light and the speaker: And then the Windows failed and then I could not see to see (lines 13, 14). So with the fly s ever-growing

place in the poem, the speaker is dying. With the entrance of the fly came the final onset. (line 7) This raises questions of the Fly s significance. The fly going between the light and the speaker can be interpreted literally, meaning the fly flew so close to his/her eyes so that he/she could no longer see light. The fly going between the light and the speaker can also be interpreted

metaphorically, using light as a symbol for life, as it so often is in poetic writings. Also, one can interpret the light to be the beautiful light in which we are suppose to approach to get to our afterworld, and the fly to be an evil being blocking this happy and peaceful death. When the speaker tells of the windows failing, the windows can mean one of two things. Taken literally, windows failing can mean windows not doing their job of letting light through. Metaphorically, this can be interpreted as the body (a soul s window to earth) not letting life through. One now must ask of the fly s meaning. It could be that the fly represents a knowledge the narrator is trying to convey, that is, even the dying do not know what to expect in death. Everyone in the poem awaits their own expected death scene to unfold when, unexpectedly, a fly interrupts. This uncertainty creates a worried feeling in the pit of a reader s stomach. The fly could also be a representation of death. Flies are generally associated with gruesome things such as death, and the fact that the speaker dies shortly after the fly s appearance may not be a coincidence. The fly can represent an angel, coming to bring the speaker to his/her afterlife. In the same way the fly can represent either Satan or God. The fly being a representation of Satan is more easily backed up then that of God because, as mentioned before, the fly is menacingly blocking the speaker from the light. Also, flies directly link to the ruler of the underworld. Beelzebub, is the name of one of the seven princes of Hell, literally translating to ("Lord of the Flies"), with numerous variants.
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One more thing possible explanation of the fly comes from ( line 13). This description replaces the word

line 13: With Blue uncertain stumbling buzz

fly for this one stanza. Taking a closer look at this description, one can see that the fly is described as blue. Blue flies do not exist. Linda Sue Grimes explains this odd fly description thus: the soul leaving the body experiences the blue of the spiritual eye through which it must

travel. The Buzz sound would be the sound of the coccygeal center of spiritual energy as it begins its journey up the spine. (Or depending on the spiritual advancement of the speaker, the om sound might be described as a buzz.)
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Whatever the fly may mean, in the context of this poem it creates an uncomfortable sensation in a reader. This uncomfortable sensation may lead to the realization that the speaker of the poem is dead. A dead person has just fully narrated his/her death to the readers. That is an unsettling realization. At last the speaker could not see to see (line 14). This description of physical eye sight loss helps a reader visualize the narrowing of the line of vision that the speaker is experiencing. When looking back on the poem as a whole, the eyesight has been narrowing throughout the whole thing. The eyesight has been closing, centralizing on the fly. There are certain elements of the poem, as mentioned before, that help draw a reader in. The desired effects of the author are unknown, but the methods are clear. The tone in the poem is very calm. This coolness of the speaker in such a situation helps the reader understand the level of acceptance in the speaker s own fate. Beyond that, the tone can be seen as a sort of robotic narration; the kind that one would expect from a dead person, with no emotion. The imagery in the poem is indescribable. The entire poem is a description of a person s experience in dying. Rhyme also plays a major role in this poem. The first three stanzas have no definite rhyme. It is not until the last stanza that we see a rhyme pattern of ABCB. This is easily explained with the notion that true rhyme comes with true death. The rhyme finalizes the death in a way, making it a large part of the poem by putting emphasis on it.

One thing particularly odd about this poem is the dashes. The dashes are placed in random seeming places, although they may be placed strategically. A dying person gasping for breath that comes labored may have abrupt pauses in their speech. These lines may represent those abrupt pauses, causing the reader to read the poem much as the speaker him/herself would. Overall, the mood this poem creates is a somber, sad, and scared sensation. The poem is somber and sad because of the situation it describes. The poem is scary because of the possible meanings it has. Any of them leave a reader with one conclusion: as life is uncertain, so is death.

Beelzebub Wikipedia. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beelzebub> 2 Grimes, Linda Sue. Dickinson s I heard a fly buzz Suite 101. October 22, 2007. <http://american-poetry.suite101.com/article.cfm/dickinsons_i_heard_a_fly_buzz>