Issues of Mortality in Emily Dickinson’s “I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died

“I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died” is more ridged and scary when it comes to explaining death. The narrator is looking at death from the afterlife while seeing the more frightening side of death. This poem’s setting stays entirely in the room. In the beginning of the poem, the fly is disturbing the “stillness in the room” (Belasco 1331). The stillness in the room means she is dying alone with no family or friends. The start of the poem explains how there was no peace in the death by comparing it to a “storm.” It can be felt that the speaker is waiting for her death as they can hear the fly buzz like when you hear a clock tick as you wait for time to pass. Since the character has to wait for her departure, it shows she is experiencing a slow death. The fly buzzing plays an important role because it shows the advancement of death. Dickinson shows the progression of death by enhancing the last sense noticed before death when she focuses on hearing the smallest details in her surroundings. As the narrator is nearing her death, she can hear things that the normal average individual wouldn't notice. The fly distracts the narrator’s final moments and upsets her peaceful death. The earthly fly in the end stands between the narrator and the calm spiritual aspect of death. In the

Emily Dickinson's poem "I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died" is centralized on the events of death and is spoken through the voice of the dying person. The poem explores both the meaning of life and death through the speaker and the significant incidents at the time of near death that the speaker notices. Many of Dickinson's poems contain a theme of death that searches to find meaning and the ability to cope with the inevitable. This poem is no exception to this traditional Dickinson theme; however its unusual comparisons and language about death set it apart from how one would view a typically tragic event.

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born on 10th December, 1830, in the town of Amherst, Massachusetts. As a young child, she showed a bright intelligence, and was able to create many recognizable writings. Many close friends and relatives in Emily’s life were taken away from her by death. Living a life of simplicity and aloofness, she wrote poetry of great power: questioning the nature of immortality and death. Although her work was influenced by great poets of the time, she published many strong poems herself. Two of Emily Dickinson’s famous poems, “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” and “I Heard a Fly Buzz- When I Died”,

Many authors are afraid to express their personal feelings on such a topic as death. Being a touchy subject, the fear of losing an audience comes into question. Such a theme isn’t an issue for Emily Dickinson however, writing meaningful poems and does it in an extraordinary way with describing the sensitive matter of death while still being able to control the reader’s emotions such as that in "Because I could not stop for death" and” I heard a fly buzz- when I died". Sharing the common rhythm about death, but differ in tone and mood towards the subject. Her use of metaphors and setting descriptions are expressively throughout these poems, giving the audience a more emotional toile from each of these.

The subject of death, including her own was a very prevalent theme in Emily Dickinson’s poems and letters. Some may find her preoccupation with death morbid, but this was not unusual for her time period. The mindset during Ms. Dickinson’s time was that of being prepared to die, in the 19th century people died of illness and accidents at an alarming rate, not to mention the Civil War had a high number of casualties, she also lived 15 years of her youth next to a cemetery. Dickinson’s view on death was never one of something to be feared she almost romanized death, in her poem “Because I Could not Stop for Death”, she actually personifies death while narrating from beyond the grave. In the first stanza she states “I could not stop for

One aspect of the poem that surprises readers is the relationship between the speaker and the fly .The first surprise involved in this relationship, is the combined revelation of the fly and the speaker’s death. As the poem begins, the speaker says to readers, “I heard a fly buzz-when I died” (Dickinson, 1). After reading that the speaker heard the buzz of a fly, readers may expect the death of the fly or more detail on the fly itself. However, the speaker hits readers by telling them that they heard the buzzing at the moment of their own death. Dickinson is immediately telling readers that her poem contains supernatural elements that link to the fly. This may come as a shock to readers, since they may ponder the significance of the fly within the speaker’s death, as it is not yet revealed by the end of the poem’s first line. The relationship between the speaker and the fly continues to be surprising, as the speaker describes the fly as the power that controls their life (the gateway between life and death). The speaker says:

Analysis of I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died and Because I Could Not Stop for Death by Emily Dickinson

The speaker is preparing to die. The crowd is now ready to experience the grandeur the speaker thought would accompany death, but suddenly, a fly intervenes. This is a lead in to the next stanza, in which the fly interrupts the event the speaker is waiting for at the moment of their death. The speaker has almost ceremonially prepared for death. It seems as though nothing will go wrong and they will see the big even they have been waiting for, and suddenly a fly appears, spoiling the moment they hoped would come.

They were all preparing for her final moment in life and when it came, everyone including God, were the witnesses in the room. God will lead her to the eternal and in comparison“Because I could not stop for Death”, is focused on what comes after death, eternity and the afterlife. In conclusion, these two poems has the same mode of death, such as death is endless and there is nothing to be scared. A speaker still describing death as uncontrollable situation. “I heard a Fly buzz-when I died” and “Because I could not stop for death” also have the same tone as a speaker comparing death to things in our ordinary lives, meaning that a speaker always think that death is very

In “I heard a Fly buzz-when I died” the woman seems to anticipate everlasting life, but does not find it. When the woman in the poem dies and her eyes or

In Emily Dickinson’s poem, “I heard a Fly buzz-when I died”, Dickinson places herself in the mind of a woman who has already died. In the poem, the reader is exposed to the experience of death for her and for the events happening around her. Many people believe that the fly is a sign of hope for eternal life, or as the book states, a “King” (line 7). However, the reader will find that this poem is not about eternal life with the king or eternal damnation in hell, but is simply just about the natural reality and process of death.

Emily Dickinson once said, “Dying is a wild night and a new road.” Some people welcome death with open arms while others cower in fear when confronted in the arms of death. Through the use of ambiguity, metaphors, personification and paradoxes Emily Dickinson still gives readers a sense of vagueness on how she feels about dying. Emily Dickinson inventively expresses the nature of death in the poems, “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain (280)”, “I Heard a fly Buzz—When I Died—(465)“ and “Because I could not stop for Death—(712)”.

However, once more, “there interposed a Fly” (12), interrupting not only the silence but also the narrator’s mind which is trying to calm before the fear of death. This is because, the fly act as the last string the narrator can hold on to, or in other words, the last string that will connect the narrator and the world. With all her possessions assigned to others, the narrator does not own any physical possessions and she is also standing on the margin of losing her life. The sound of the fly buzzing and the sight of the fly flying around the room allow the narrator on the deathbed to know she is still alive and existing in the world as a human being. The fly, when seen from the positive or the optimistic point of view, can act as a symbol of hopefulness, for life existing in the same room with death can be interpreted as fly blocking and stopping the door of death from opening.

This image represents the fusing of color and sound by the dying person’s diminishing senses. The uncertainty of the fly’s darting motions parallels her state of mind. Flying between the light and her, it seems to both signal the moment of death and represent the world that she is leaving.” The last two lines show the speakers confusion of her eyes. She is both distancing fear and revealing her detachment from life, “And then the Windows failed – and then/I could not see to see “. Which ends the poem, with her