Emily Dickinson

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I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died

• Emily Dickinson

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• I heard a fly buzz when I died
• The Stillness in the Room
• Was like the stillness in the Air      
• Between the Heaves of Storm
• The Eyes around had wrung them dry
• And breaths were gathering firm
• For that last Onset, when the King
• Be witnessed in the Room
• I willed my Keepsakes Signed away
• What portion of me be
• Assignable and then it was
• 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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I Heard A Fly Buzz When I Died

• The room is silent except for the fly. The poem
  describes a lull between "heaves," suggesting
  that upheaval preceded this moment and that more
  upheaval will follow.
• It is a moment of expectation, of waiting. There
  is "stillness in the air" and the watchers of her
  dying are silent. And still the only sound is the
  fly's buzzing.

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I Heard A Fly Buzz When I Died

• The people witnessing the death have exhausted
  their grief (their eyes are "wrung dry" of
  tears).
• Her breathing indicates that "that last onset" or
  death is about to happen. "Last onset" is a
  paradox, it seems like a contradiction because
  "onset" means a beginning, and "last" means an
  end.

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I Heard A Fly Buzz When I Died

• For Christians, death is the beginning of eternal
  life. Death brings revelation, when God becomes
  known.
• This is why "the King / Be Witnessed in the
  Room " The king may be God or death.
• She is ready to die she has cut her attachments
  to this world and given away "my keepsakes.

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I Heard A Fly Buzz When I Died

• Yet there is one portion of the speaker that is
  not assignable, that she cant give to whoever
  she wants. This is her immortal soul, the
  ultimate destiny of which she has not control
  over.
• As the speaker finally passed away the room
  seemed to fill with darkness I could not see to
  see. To her, the windows appear to have failed
  because they dont seem to be letting any light
  in.
• The speaker says that as she died the fly
  interposed or positioned itself between her and
  the light, making it the last thing she saw.

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What is the fly?

• The image of a fly positioning itself the
  speaker and the light as she lies dying is a
  puzzling one. There are several possible
  interpretations
• As the speaker dies her sense of sight begins to
  fail and her field of vision is reduced to a
  small tunnel. A fly floats into her remaining
  vision and it is the last thing she sees or hears
  as dies.

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What is the fly?

• The speaker is hallucinating. As the speaker lay
  on her deathbed a fly was buzzing around the
  corner of the room. As she finally passed away,
  the speakers confused mind mixed up these two
  events and she imagines a huge fly is blocking
  out the light.
• The fly might indicate that there is nothing
  after death, no afterlife. A fly suggests the
  grim realities of death such as the smell, decay
  etc. Flies do, after all, feed on dead flesh. The
  speaker could be seeing the future, beyond death,
  as nothing more that physical decay. The fly then
  might suggest that there is no eternal life or
  immortality.

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THEME Death

• The poem movingly depicts the process of dying.
  The poems final stanza portrays a mind
  disintegrating as life leaves it.
• There is something powerful about the repetition
  of the words And then in this stanza as the
  speaker lists the stages of her mental collapse.
• The poem emphasises the indignity of the
  speakers death. The speaker has prepared for
  death, has made her will and gathered her family
  around her to say goodbye. The last thing she
  hears, however, is not the soothing words of her
  family but the buzzing of a fly.

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THEME Death

• The last thing she sees is not the faces of her
  loved ones but a fly floating in front of her.
• The speakers last experience in this world is of
  a miserable and insignificant insect, stumbling
  as it buzzes around the room.
• Many feel that this makes a mockery out of the
  moment of her death, robbing her of grace and
  dignity.

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The fly as personification of death

• The fly can be seen as a symbol or
  personification of death. Flies are often
  associated with disease, death and decay.
• Just as death is often personified as a
  black-cloaked figure, here Dickinson personifies
  death as a fly blocking out the light of this
  world.
• The idea of death as a fly waiting to claim each
  of us at the end of our lives is unpleasant and
  disturbing.

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THEME religion

• This poem presents a rather mocking view of
  religion.
• The speaker and her loved ones wait anxiously for
  the King to be witnessed in the room.
• They seem to believe that as the speaker dies,
  Jesus the king of heaven will appear, and
  carry his loyal subjects soul to paradise.

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THEME religion

• Yet at the moment of the speakers death, there
  is no sign of Jesus. There is no indication that
  the speaker is bound for paradise.
• The last thing the speaker witnesses is not the
  glorious arrival of the King but the uncertain
  buzzing of a stumbling fly.
• The poem offers little hope of life after death.
  The poem ends with the dying speakers vision
  fading to black. Dickinson is possibly suggesting
  that this black oblivion is all that awaits us
  when we pass away.

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language

• The phrase Heaves of Storm is an example of
  onomatopoeia. The phrase mirrors the sound of
  blowing wind.
• Repetition is used effectively in stanza 4. The
  speaker mechanically lists the stages of her
  collapse, and then And then and then,
  presenting them as part of an unstoppable
  process.
• Dickinson uses an excellent simile to describe
  the momentary quietness in the room when the
  speaker is granted a brief respite from her
  suffering. The quietness, she says, is like that
  at the eye of a hurricane. The simile captures
  the tense atmosphere of dread and expectancy
  around the deathbed.

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Questions

1. What is the atmosphere like in the room? How is
   this atmosphere created?
2. What is the last thing the speaker sees and hears
   before she dies? Describe what you think she
   experiences.
3. This is a really frightening portrayal of
   death. Read the poem closely and carefully once
   again. Write two paragraphs saying whether you
   agree or disagree with this statement.