A Vision
In "I heard a Fly buzz"; Emily Dickinson expresses to her readers about the emotional instability she feels while on her deathbed. She has written several poems about death, but this one differs from her other poems because it is told from her perspective, in accordance with her final moments. The poem creates several powerful images that arouse various possible explanations. It is easiest to understand how the poem (and her death) unfolds by reviewing the poem stanza by stanza. However, before examining the actual context, it is also important to look at the form of the poem, which also plays a puissant role. First of all, and most noticeable, is the continual use of dashes, which adds a lingering essence, as if foreshadowing the death. The dashes also signify power and unanswered questions about death and, perhaps, whether or not an afterlife exists. Another aspect of the form is how it is broken up into stanzas expressing differing ideas in each one. By braking up such ideas, it is easier to analyze the varying aspects of death that Ms. Dickinson believes are imperative when expressing what she is feeling prior to her death. The first stanza starts off repeating the title, "I heard a Fly buzz-when I died-" (line 1
The final, fourth stanza, intertwines all of the previous stanzas. It begins, "With Blue- - uncertain stumbling Buzz" (13) where the use of the word "blue" implies a smoothness, or rather calmness, prior to the end. More interestingly, as the stanza continues the readers uncover the purpose of the fly. "Between the light - and me-/ And then the Windows failed-and then/ I could not see to see" (14 &15) encompasses several meanings discussing this purpose. The fly prohibits the speaker from seeing the light. Therefore it distracts her from the appropriate sense of an ending and her perception is skewed. It is also important to note that the light is more than just the physical sense, it is also defining her life. As the "windows" of the soul, and her eyes are prevented from seeing such light because of the fly. This fly becomes a blindness that correlates to the last line of the poem about how she "could not see to see" - both physically and spiritually. ). These words, though odd, are explained through the rest of the stanza, as the insignificance of the sound of a fly's buzz is magnified, thus becoming extreme, compared to "The Stillness in the room" (2). This "Stillness" is then related to the "Stillness in the air" (3). Though the "Stillness" causes the buzzing sound to take strength, "Stillness", in this stanza, takes on a dou
Some common words found in the essay are:
Ms Dickinson, Emily Dickinson, ms dickinson, , fly fly, heard fly, third stanza, death stanza, final moments, purpose fly, seeing light, fourth stanza,
Approximate Word count = 908
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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