“I Heard a Fly Buzz—When I Died” Emily Dickinson

1. “I Heard a Fly Buzz—When I Died”Emily Dickinson http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzK0mQER28A&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1&safe=active

2. Stanza One 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— When the speaker died, the room was quiet and still except for the buzz of a fly. It is unusual that the speaker noticed something so insignificant during death (Ruby).

3. Stanza One 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—

4. Line 1 The first line informs the reader that the experience in this poem is being described from a unique point of view. The persona of the poem is already dead and is looking back at the experience of dying. Oddly enough, the speaker focuses on the sound of a fly, something that most people would consider trivial during an incident of such monumental importance as one’s own death. This opening leads the reader to wonder why the fly is significant enough to be the speaker’s most immediate and enduring memory of the experience of death.

5. Lines 2-4 The speaker describes a stillness, or absence of movement and noise, in the room where the death scene takes place. The feeling in the room is compared to “the Stillness in the Air— / Between the Heaves of Storm.” This is a comparison to what is known as the eye of a hurricane, or the circular area of relative calm that is found at the center of a cyclone. The poem’s speaker suggests that there is a moment of absolute calm and quiet between the storms of life and death.

6. Literary Devices Simile: a comparison using “like” or “as” Dickinson uses a simile to compare the “Stillness in the Air” to the stillness in the eye of a hurricane (Ruby). Implied Metaphor: The “heaves of storm” implies that mourners have been crying. Slant Rhyme: inexact rhyme (room and storm)

7. Stanza Two The Eyes around—had wrung them dry— And Breaths were gathering firm For that last Onset—when the King Be witnessed—in the Room— The “Eyes” and “Breaths” represent the mourners in the room who had gathered to witness her death. The mourners were waiting to see some sign of Christ’s presence in the room when the speaker dies (Ruby).

8. Stanza Two The Eyes around—had wrung them dry— And Breaths were gathering firm For that last Onset—when the King Be witnessed—in the Room— The people at the death bed are “gathering firm,” meaning perhaps that they have gathered together to support each other in the fixed and unalterable understanding that the loved one will die, and they are waiting for the end to come. At the same time, their breathing has stopped shaking and trembling because they are calmly awaiting what is now inevitable.

9. Summary In these lines, “that last Onset” probably means the final stage of the dying process. Because the mourners in the room were most likely to be nineteenth-century American Protestants, they would have been expecting some formal sign that their loved one had been welcomed into the Kingdom of God, or into the arms of Christ the “King.” Perhaps the speaker recognizes the eagerness of his or her loved ones to “witness” Christ in the room. This expectation is quite ironic because the poem’s speaker sees not Christ but a common blowfly.

10. Literary Devices Dickinson uses synecdoche when she describes the witnesses by only their “Eyes” and metonymy when she uses “Breaths” Symbolism: Dickinson uses Christian symbolism when referencing a higher power by using the word “King” Oxymoron: a figure of speech that combines two contradictory ideas. Dickinson uses an oxymoron when placing the words “last Onset” next to each other.

11. Stanza Three I Willed my Keepsakes—Signed away What portion of me be Assignable—and then it was There interposed a Fly— The speaker has done everything he or she needs to do to prepare for death and in the middle of this preparation the fly buzzes.

12. Stanza Three I Willed my Keepsakes—Signed away What portion of me be Assignable—and then it was There interposed a Fly—

13. Stanza Three In this stanza, the speaker describes the completion of personal business as an important part of the dying process. He or she has made a last will and testament, giving “Keepsakes,” or token possessions, away to relatives and friends. “Signed away / What portions of me be / Assignable” probably refers to the dying person’s request for the memorial ceremony and disposal of the body. These acts have more to do with the needs of the living than the needs of the dead, and yet they are commonly accepted and widely expected rituals of death and dying in Western society. In the midst of all this business activity, “There interposed a Fly—” could mean that the speaker is interrupted from the social ritual of death by the fly’s presence .

14. Literary Devices Inversion: writing that reverses the usual order of words. Dickinson uses inversion in the last line of this stanza when instead of saying “a fly interposed,” she says “There interposed a Fly—” .

15. Stanza Four With Blue—uncertain stumbling Buzz— Between the light—and me— And then the Windows failed—and then I could not see to see— The fly interrupts the speaker’s journey to “the light” (which can be interpreted as Heaven). The “Windows” can be thought to be the speaker’s eyes as they close for the last time and the speaker dies (Ruby).

16. Stanza Four With Blue—uncertain stumbling Buzz— Between the light—and me— And then the Windowsfailed—and then I could not see to see— The color blue is usually Dickinson’s symbol for eternity. Here, perhaps it is used ironically because the fly, as a creature that lays its eggs in dead flesh, is usually symbolic of mortality.

17. Summary The fly’s buzz is described as “uncertain” and “stumbling,” perhaps indicating the way that the sound of a fly can move in and out of human consciousness. The fly comes between the speaker and the “light.” Here, light can have two meanings. Literally, it describes the actual light of day and touches upon the fact that the speaker’s sense of sight is failing at the moment of death. Figuratively, the “light” might mean the light of Christ, or the spiritual world. In any case, it is the sound of the fly that interrupts the speaker’s experience.

18. Summary The “Windows” can have two possible meanings in this line. Perhaps the speaker is transposing the experience of the light failing (blindness) to the windows, describing the loss of the sense of sight in terms of an external, inanimate object. On the other hand, perhaps “Windows” is a metaphor for the eyes, much in the sense that people call eyes the windows of the soul. The final line of the poem is a description of blindness. On one level, it is the loss of the physical sense of sight. On another level, it might be a spiritual blindness, indicating that there is no great spiritual vision after death but rather nothingness. This second explanation is in keeping with Dickinson’s reputation as a skeptic, but it does not explain how the poem’s persona could be describing this incident after extinction.

19. Literary Devices Metonymy: Use of something closely associated with something to mean the thing itself. Here, Dickinson uses metonymy when she refers to eyes as “windows” because of the saying, “The eyes are the windows of the soul.” Assonance: “uncertain stumbling buzz”

20. Literary Devices Metaphor: a figure of speech in which one thing is spoken of as though it were something else. • Dickinson uses the extended metaphor of the fly to emphasize the trivial things in life.

21. Separation Edvard Munch

22. Edvard Munch This Norwegian artist’s painting models “I Heard a Fly Buzz—When I Died” because of the dark surroundings that mimic the “Heaves of Storm.” The white figure represents the soul leaving the man who is clutching his heart which connects to Dickinson’s work because the poem is about the last moments of death.

23. Dickinson’s Contribution to American Literature • Dickinson had some Transcendentalist influences such as Thoreau, but her work was not quite considered to be Transcendentalist. • Although she lived much of her life inside and traveled rarely, her poems are able to affect those who have experienced much more than she experienced. • Eventually when they published her poetry, editors grouped the poems into categories: Friends, Nature, Love, and Death.

24. Dickinson’s Contribution to American Literature • Emily Dickinson also led the way for other women to become creative and knowledgeable, leading the way for her generation. • An amazing characteristic of Dickinson’s writing is her ability to write extremely powerful and passionate feelings within strict poetic form. • Dickinson also had an intense curiosity about death, and she commonly wrote about her own loneliness and her fascination of death and the afterlife.

25. Let’s try it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfR7qxtgCgY&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1&safe=active Gilligan’s Island Theme