Emily Dickinson I Heard a Fly Buzz – When I Died.

Emily Dickinson

I Heard a Fly Buzz – When I Died

I heard a fly buzz – when I died – The Stillness in the RoomWas like the stillness in the Air –       Between the Heaves of Storm –

The Eyes around – had wrung them dry –And breaths were gathering firmFor that last Onset, when the KingBe witnessed – in the Room –

I willed my Keepsakes – Signed awayWhat portion of me beAssignable – and then it was There interposed a Fly –

With Blue – uncertain stumbling Buzz – Between the light – and me – And then the Windows failed – and thenI could not see to see –

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.

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.

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”.

I Heard A Fly Buzz – When I Died

• Yet there is one “portion” of the speaker that is not “assignable”, that she can’t 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 don’t 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.

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.

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 speaker’s 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.

THEME: DEATH

• The poem movingly depicts the process of dying. The poem’s 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

speaker’s 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.

THEME: DEATH

• The last thing she sees is not the faces of her loved ones but a fly floating in front of her.

• The speaker’s 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.

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.

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 subject’s soul to paradise.

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THEME: RELIGION

• Yet at the moment of the speaker’s 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 speaker’s vision fading to black. Dickinson is possibly suggesting that this black oblivion is all that awaits us when we pass away.

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.

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.