Emily Dickinson was born December 10, 1830 in Massachusetts. As she grew up, she surrounded herself with very few people and seldom left her house. By the1860s, she had completely isolated herself from the outside world. This had a huge impact on her poetry and career. Some of her poetry was based around her fascination with death and skeptical thoughts of immortality. This is where “I Heard a Fly Buzz – When I Died” fit into Dickinson’s odd personality. Even though the poem’s title sounds straight forward, there were many debates and disagreements over the true meaning behind it. The way this poem is portrayed by Dickinson, lends too many different ways one may interpret it. Dickinson uses mechanics and other poetic elements to convey the themes of death and private vs public life.
Dickinson uses mechanics to allow the ideas and themes of “I Heard a Fly Buzz-When I Died” to come together making the poem complete. It is written in four stanzas each containing four lines. Dickinson also uses an ABCB rhyme scheme. For example lines fourteen and fifteen rhyme, with the endings of “me” and “see”. Dickinson uses perfect iambic meter to keep the rhythm of the poem. Iambic meter means that the lines are each divided into syllable groups of two, and emphasizes the second syllable. Also, Dickinson uses strange capitalization throughout the poem (Kellman Steven 621). For example, in line 1-2 “I heard a Fly buzz- when I died- the Stillness in the Room,” the words Fly, Stillness, and Room are all capitalized in the middle of the sentence. The strange capitalization brings emphasis on random words thought out the poem. Plus Dickinson uses inexact rhyme or slant rhyme in the poem, with words like room and storm. Lastly, Dickinson uses unusual...
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... into this poem, there is still a vast amount of mystery behind the true meaning Dickinson was trying to portray.” I Heard a Fly Buzz- When I Died” is one of many poems written by Emily Dickinson but has to be one of the more complexly written ones. This poem leaving the reader with the choice of how to take death upon them, with gratefulness of what has already happed or fear of what did not.
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Works Cited
Hochman, Jhan. ”Critical Essay.” Poetry for Students .ED. Rudy, Mary.Vol.5.Detroit: Gale, 1999.145-53.Gale Group.Web.5 Feb.2014.
Kellman, Steven. ED. Magill’s Survey of American Literature.Vol.2.San Antonio: Salem Press, 2007.621.Web.5 Feb.2014.
Leiter, Sharon. Critical Companion to Emily Dickinson. New York: Facts on File, 2007.103; 133.Print.5 Feb, 2014.
Ruby, Mary .ED. Poetry for Students.Vol.5.Detroit: Gale, 1999.139-45.Gale Group.Web.5 Feb.2014.
The topic of death, an obvious similarity: That Emily Dickinson states in the title of these poems. Death is a very strong word, with meaning and the power to capture an audience. Emily Dickinson inserts slant rhyme and exact rhyme, like used in church hymns. There are several places where Dickinson inserts a slant rhyme in “Because I could not stop for Death.” For example, in the in the fourth stanza words chill and tulle again with third stanza she uses a slant rhyme between the words ring with sun “at recess- in the Ring...setting Sun.” Also, in the other poem “I heard a fly buzz – when I died” has several slant rhymes one of them is in the first stanza, room rhymes with storm “In the room…of storm” (lines 2-4) and exact thyme that is in lines 14 and 16 with words “me” and “see.” Personification is another similar...
Comparing and Contrasting Dickinson’s Poems, Because I Could Not Stop for Death and I Heard a Fly Buzz - When I Died
Emily Dickinson wrote hundreds of poems during her lifetime that dealt with death. She seemed to have an almost morbid fascination with the subject. Her poem "I heard a Fly buzz - when I died" is one of the many poems she wrote about this ghastly topic. The symbols she used make this poem interesting because they can be interpreted on more than one level. The punctuation and capitalization used also give the poem an abstract quality. Like much of Dickinson's poetry, this poem is both startling and somber.
...and its corpse before he got a formal resting place. The fifth stanza has phrases such as “carnal sun”, “hymn of flies”, and “death breeding in his lively eyes” to describe the dog that Wilbur saw in his dreams. These phrases help show us the scary image and help us understand why it was a nightmare. The words “hymn of flies” also have a deeper meaning. A hymn is normally sung at a funeral, and in the poem, the dog is dead. To the persona, the buzz of the flies sound like a sad hymn.
A reader can immediately sense the speaker’s preoccupation with death in I heard a Fly buzz–when I died.” Although not proven, it can be assumed that the speaker in the poem is Dickinson herself, or at least that Dickinson shares some of the feelings expressed in the poem. The second stanza of the poem says, “The Eyes around–had wrung them dry– / And Breaths were gathering firm / For that last Onset–when the King Be witnessed–in the Room–” (Dickinson, 203).
... they contrast on their perception of death. This allows one to conclude that Dickinson views death and afterlife as indecisive and unclear. Dickinson uses different strategies to highlight the changeable character of death. In “I Heard A Fly Buzz When I Died” death signifies sorrow, but in “Because I Could Not Stop For Death,” death is kind to the narrator. Dickinson indicates that death is unpredictable. Nesmith also writes that “while everything heretofore is like a well-rehearsed play—controlled, orchestrated, and scripted, proceeding according to ritual—the ill-timed fly ruins the finale. Yet death occurs anyways” (165). Death can mean different things such as, the end of life or the beginning eternity. Death does not follow an agenda and is far past human understanding. Death has many points of view and is always unable to be scheduled around a human’s plan.
Emily Dickinson had a fascination with death and mortality throughout her life as a writer. She wrote many poems that discussed what it means not only to die, but to be dead. According to personal letters, Dickinson seems to have remained agnostic about the existence of life after death. In a letter written to Mrs. J. G. Holland, Emily implied that the presence of death alone is what makes people feel the need for heaven: “If roses had not faded, and frosts had never come, and one had not fallen here and there whom I could not waken, there were no need of other Heaven than the one below.” (Bianchi 83). Even though she was not particularly religious, she was still drawn to the mystery of the afterlife. Her poetry is often contemplative of the effect or tone that death creates, such as the silence, decay, and feeling of hopelessness. In the poem “I died for beauty,” Dickinson expresses the effect that death has on one's identity and ability to impact the world for his or her ideals.
Similar to Shakespeare, Dickinson choses to put into use the iambic pentameter. The use of the meter enhances the poem, enabling the reader to go through the text with an easy rhythm in which one can digest the passage. “I Heard a Fly Buzz- When I Died” is a very complex poem, that may be difficult to analyze, but by breaking the poem apart piece by piece, using the iambic pentameter, analyzation becomes much easier. “I heard /a Fly /buzz - when /I died -/” (1) the pentameter stresses heard, fly, when, and died. Using those clues it is noted that the speaker is perhaps no longer living, based on the fact that he or she said “when” and “died”, which is past tense.the next three lines “The Still/ness in/ the Room/, Was like/ the Still/ness in/ the Air -/, Between /the Heaves/ of
Imagery is a big component to most works of poetry. Authors strive to achieve a certain image for the reader to paint in their mind. Dickinson tries to paint a picture of ?death? in her own words. Thomas A. Johnson, an interpretive author of Dickinson's work, says that ?In 1863 Death came into full statue as a person. ?Because I could not stop for Death? is a superlative achievement wherein Death becomes one of the greatest characters of literature? (Johnson). Dickinson's picture to the audience is created by making ?Death? an actual character in the poem. By her constantly calling death either ?his? or ?he,? she denotes a specific person and gender. Dickinson also compares ?Death? to having the same human qualities as the other character in the poem. She has ?Death? physically arriving and taking the other character in the carriage with him. In the poem, Dickinson shows the reader her interpretation of what this person is going through as they are dying and being taken away by ?Death?. Dickinson gives images such as ?The Dews drew quivering and chill --? and ?A Swelling of the Ground --? (14, 18). In both of these lines, Dickinson has the reader conjure up subtle images of death. The ?quivering an chill? brings to the reader's mind of death being ...
Because it has become so familiar, death is no longer a frightening presence, but a comforting companion. Despite this, Dickinson is still not above fear, showing that nothing is static and even the most resolute person is truly sure of anything. This point is further proven in “I Heard a Fly Buzz”, where a fly disrupts the last moment of Dickinson’s life. The fly is a symbol of death, and of uncertainty, because though it represents something certain—her impending death—it flies around unsure with a “stumbling buzz”. This again illustrates the changing nature of life, and even death.
Dickinson uses the literary elements: similes and alliteration to prove the poem’s meaning of death. In her poem I felt a funeral in my brain, Dickinson uses. The first stanza is Dickinson explains how she feels the funeral and that she sees the people coming in for the service. The second stanza is the funeral starting. She writes, “a service, like a drum.” Dickinson is comparing a service to a drum, drums beat, make noise, and keep music in time. Comparing a drum to a service could be explaining her heart beating, as she could be nervous. Also, drums make different sounds depending on the song
The average reader cannot help but be affected by Dickinson’s style. The capitalized words draw the reader’s attention. They highlight important key words of the poem. The dashes set apart specific words and phrases, forcing the reader to slow down while reading. The dashes compel the reader to contemplate and ponder over the lines. Thus, whether or not Dickinson had a conscious purpose in her unconventional capitalization and punctuation, they have an undeniable effect on the rhythm of the poem and the perception of the reader.
I Heard a Fly Buzz (465) Emily Dickinson 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 – The Eyes around – had wrung them dry – And Breaths were gathering firm For that last Onset – when the King Be witnessed – in the Room – I willed my Keepsakes – Signed away What portions of me be Assignable – and then it was There interposed a Fly – With Blue – uncertain stumbling Buzz – Between the light – and me –
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)”.
Throughout Emily Dickinson’s poetry there is a reoccurring theme of death and immortality. The theme of death is further separated into two major categories including the curiosity Dickinson held of the process of dying and the feelings accompanied with it and the reaction to the death of a loved one. Two of Dickinson’s many poems that contain a theme of death include: “Because I Could Not Stop For Death,” and “After great pain, a formal feeling comes.”