I Heard A Fly Buzz When I Died; Poem by Emily Dickinson

I Heard A Fly Buzz When I Died;

Rating: 4.7


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.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
* Sunprincess * 25 September 2015

........a most interesting write ★

2 0 Reply
Estell T 30 March 2009

I beg to differ everybody is entitled to there own opinion however i think that the fly buzz was her conscience letting her know that her individualism is going to die in this poem her 'me' in most cases because she is about to get married to the king which is her (husband) and shes giving away her self because once she is married her last name is gone and will be dead because he was name comsumed her with marriage and his life

8 3 Reply
Jillian Scott 10 February 2006

How can this poem be rated so low? Dickinson is a great writer with some transcendental-like views. The image of the fly shattering the moment- shattering the ideal way to die is incredibly disturbing. Or it occurred too me that flies are usually associated with something sinister (Lord of the Flies) and that the fly blocking her view of the light is an omen.

8 3 Reply
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Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson

Amherst / Massachusetts
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