I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died
I heard a Fly buzzโ when I diedโ
The Stillness in the Room
Was like the Stillness in the Airโ
Between the Heaves of StormโThe Eyes aroundโ had wrung them dry-
And Breaths were gathering firm
For that last Onsetโwhen the King
Be witnessed in the RoomโI willed my Keepsakes-Signed away
What portion of me be
Could make Assignableโand then
There interposed a FlyโWith blue, uncertain stumbling buzz
Between the lightโand meโ
And the Windows failedโand then
I could not see to seeโ
Glossary
Written in 1862, สปI heard a Fly buzz-
when I diedสผ was first published in Emily Dickinsonสผs third posthumous collection of poetry, Poems by Emily Dickinson, in 1896. The poem has been an object of much critical debate. In fact, since the poemสผs publication, there has been wide critical divergence over the symbolic function of the fly as a symbol and its relationship to the death of the poemสผs presumptive speaker.
Heaves: this word has many meanings. It can mean force or strenuous effort. In colloquial English, the word is associated with an attack of vomiting.
Onset: the beginning of something, particularly something difficult or unpleasant. The word can also mean
the initial attack in a military conflict.
Keepsakes: mementos or small items or gifts kept because they bring memories to mind.
Interposed: to place yourself or something else between two people or two different objects.
Summary /Analysis
This thought-provoking and even disturbing poem open in an unusual and arresting manner. The speaker tells us that at the moment of death, she heard a สปFly buzzสผ. In typical Dickinson fashion, the poet attempts to make the abstract concrete through the association of two dissimilar qualities, equating the heavy, oppressive feeling associated with her death bed to the สปStillness in the Air Between the Heaves of Stormสผ.
In the second stanza, the poet focuses on the friends and relations who have presumably gathered to view the last moments of the speakerสผs life. American attitudes towards death in the nineteenth century remained largely unaltered from previous centuries: death was an uncomfortable and undeniable reality of daily life. By 1850, when Emily was just 20 years old, life expectancy for an American adult had reached just 39 years of age. It is no wonder, then, that Dickinson puzzled and pondered over death in so many of her poems. Over the span of a few short months in 1844 when the poet was just 13 years old, an unusually large number of deaths were recorded amongst friends and family of the Dickinsonsสผ, culminating with the death of her friend and cousin, Sophia Holland. The young poet was permitted to keep vigil at her bedside. As Sophia neared death, Dickinson was mesmerized by the otherworldly smile that animated her friendสผs features. Many years later, the poet revealed how much this experience had marked her. She claimed it had sent her into a deep depression that required a long stay with her Aunt Lavina in Boston.
Here in this poem, she reflects a curiously nineteenth-century attitude towards death, when it was widely believed that the final moments of life provided a glimpse as to the destination of the dying personสผs soul. It is this sense of expectation that Dickinson alludes to when she speaks of the สปBreathsสผ of the onlookers สปgathering firmสผ.
In a surreal touch, those keeping this bedside vigil are reduced to body parts. They become สปEyesสผ and สปBreathsสผ and we learn absolutely nothing of their experience connection to the speaker. In what is presumably an allusion to Christ the King, in the final two lines of the stanza, we learn that those present wait in eager anticipation of the coming of the King:
For that last Onset-when the King
Be witnessedโin the Room.
In the next quatrain, the poet prepares for the final moment of life by assigning away everything that one expects to leave behind at the point of death:
I willed my Keepsakes-Signed away
What portion of me be
Assignable [โฆ]
This is followed by a troubling revelation. Instead of the arrival of Christ or indeed any sign of salvation, the speaker is greeted by the buzzing of a fly. This สปBlueสผ, สปuncertainสผ and สปstumblingสผ fly must be viewed as the antithesis of the surety and purpose afforded by a belief in an afterlife. As the poem draws to a close, the darkness and shadows begin to close in on the speaker. The final line of the poem captures a sense of finality that only death can bring:
I could not see to see-
Stylistic Features
From fifteenth-century chapbooks right through to the more sophisticated seventeenth-century works such as Jeremy Taylorสผs Holy Dying, there has been along with tradition in Western European literature that has centered on the notion of the good death. This lyrical poem, along with many others by Emily Dickinson, belongs to a sub-genre of poetry known as mortuary poetry. Traditionally, such poems describe the last moments of the dead or dying from the perspective of the living. However, in this poem, Dickinson subverts the genre and presents the reader with a disturbing account of death from the perspective of the dying person.
In the poem, all our expectations concerning the final moments of life are undermined. This process begins with the disturbing opening line, which shocks the reader into contemplating the full reality of the speakerสผs death:
I heard a Fly buzzโwhen I diedโ
This is one of Emily Dickinsonสผs finest opening lines. It effectively juxtaposes the seemingly inconsequential สปFlyสผ with the momentous moment of death. In fact, the movement from one to the other is so rapid that the reader is left reeling. The inclusion of the two dashes in this line further disorientates and confuses us. Notice how the dashes somehow diminish the importance of what is being said here. It is as if the speaker is recounting the moment of her death in an offhand manner that is strangely removed from the gravity of the experience being described. The predominance of the personal pronoun สปIสผ gives the poem a curiously voyeuristic appeal that is difficult to ignore. In the course of the poem, the poet vividly describes the movement away from the conscious, living world towards the finality of death.
As the light slowly fades and the presences in the room become dissociated and disembodied, the reader is made to experience a sense of tense expectation. It is a characteristic feature of Dickinsonสผs poetry that the abstract is made concrete through unusual associations. Here in this poem, in order to create such a sense of expectation, the poet employs a simile that likens the heavy stillness in the room to the calm สปBetween the Heaves of Stormสผ.
However, what is so unsettling about this poem is the fact that this sense of expectation is never rewarded. The expected arrival of the สปKingสผ and its implied promise of salvation is interrupted by a mere สปFlyสผ.
In this manner, Dickinson raises some unsettling questions about death. The fly, of course, has frequently been associated with death.
Presumably, Dickinson is referring to the common bluebottle fly, a species of fly that frequently lays its eggs in decaying meat. This uncomfortable reality about the fly forces the reader to consider the physical reality of death. Furthermore, the fly has associations with evil.
In Colin de Plancyสผs Dictionnaire Infernal, first published in 1862, Beelzebub, the Lord of the Flies and one of the chief devils in hell, is depicted as a blue bottle. Here in Dickinsonสผs poem, the สปFlyสผ (notice the capital letter) is made to interpose สปBetween the lightสผ and the speaker and as a result, she สปcould not see to seeสผ. The buzzing of the fly completely absorbs the speakerสผs perception and consciousness. In order to convey fully the presence of the fly in the room, the reader relies on complex language devices. In particular, alliteration and synaesthesia render the presence of the fly a visceral one for the reader. The colour blue is made to buzz and the repetition of bสผ and สปsสผ sounds create a random and disoriented feeling to the flyสผs movement that reinforces the sense of meaninglessness running throughout the poem.
Consequently, the image of the fly forces the reader to consider the possibility of a malevolent or at best meaningless afterlife that results in decay. สปI heard a Fly buzz-when I diedสผ relies heavily on a formal metric pattern: trimeter and iambic tetrameter lines with four stresses in the first and third lines of each stanza. Dickinson normally relies on this hymnal metre when she is at her most formal.
