journal - 28

This poem is about a woman who is on her death bed. She is in a quiet room of crying people who are all waiting for her to die. She is finally ready to die, and she is giving away all of her material possessions to the people in the room. While she is giving away her things, what she can leave behind when she dies, a fly flew above her and caught her attention. This interrupts her while she is dying.

The first stanza says "I HEARD a fly buzz when I died; The stillness round my formWas like the stillness in the air Between the heaves of storm" (Dickinson). She is first stating what the main happening of the poem is, which is that she heard a fly buzz when she died. Also, when she refers to the stillness round her form, Ishe could be talking about the people around her bedside as she is dying. She is stating how still and awestruck they are as they await the death of this woman. They have nothing else to do but be silent. When this poem refers to heaves of storm, the author may be refering to bouts of obvious approaching death, which sends the spectators into an uncomfortable panic (Dickinson).

In the second stanza, the author says "The eyes beside had wrung them dry, and breaths were gathering sure for that last onset, when the king Be witnessed in his power" (Dickinson). This is most likely refering to the spectators of death surrounding the bead of the dying. It says that the people watching had been crying so much that they have no tears left (Dickinson). She also mentions their breath, which everyone seemed to be quietly holding in, in preparation for any second being that last second of life of the dying woman. When refering to the king, this is likely refering to God's power, which is revealed in one way through death (Dickinson).


The third stanza says, "I willed my keepsakes, signed away what portion of me I could make assignable,—and then there interposed a fly" (Dickinson). This could be refering her giving away what was left of her material possesions in her last moments of life, and then something so vastly insignificant caught her attention. A fly interrupted.

In the last stanza is "with blue, uncertain, stumbling buzz, between the light and me; and then the windows failed, and then I could not see to see" (Dickinson). The dying woman is trying to look at the fly which caught her attention, but then it is hard for her to see the fly. And then the woman dies, as she is trying to look at the fly. It is interesting how she was filled with a whole room of people who were most likely lamenting on her life, and stating profound and significant things, yet a fly is the last thing the woman notices in her life (Dickinso).



128. “I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died.” Part Four: Time and Eternity. Dickinson, Emily. 1924. Complete Poems." 128. “I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died.” Part Four: Time and Eternity. Dickinson, Emily. 1924. Complete Poems. Web. 28 Mar. 2012. .