Journal #28

"I heard a fly buzz when I died," is a very depressing poem. The speaker is laying on his/her death bed and as she is waiting to take his/her last breath, a fly decides to interpose and disrupt her death. This poem reflects Emily Dickinson because she was a very religious person, so she incorporated God, or in this case Jesus, into the poem. I think the fly in this poem serves as a symbol of an obstacle. It is the transition between life and death and the difference between her being alive and her going to spend her time in heaven. The poem has a very eerie tone to it though because of how it describes the objects. The logical preparation for death is definitely expressed in this poem. The speaker talks about how he/she signed away all of her stuff and she was prepared for death. Until the fly get in his/her way, he/she was fully prepared to die. Everyone was gathered around this person just waiting for him/her to pass into the light and something so simple as a fly got in the way. A fly is such a tiny creature, but in this poem in particular it is the most important thing. The buzzing sound is the last thing he/she hears before he/she dies, so the sound the fly makes is really significant. When he/she loses his/her sight, he/she either loses her vision and passes away, or he/she is not dead yet, but is dangling still between life and death. I think that the poem is very significant and very different. One thing that publishers liked about Emily Dickinson's poems was that she had very different topics and she tended not to talk about normal things or common things. This poem talks about the difference between life and death and not many authors were brave enough to venture into the details that goes along with dying. These aspects as well as her religion is incorporated into the story to logically explain the process of death.