Poetry Analysis: I Heard A Fly Buzz When I Died

Emily Dickinson In the 19th century, Emily Dickinson became very known for her writing. Emily Dickinson wrote “I heard a Fly buzz – when I died” in 1862. This poem did not become known until 1896 after she had already passed away. Dickinson wrote thousands of poems and they she stated that she wrote for herself and not for others. Dickinson’s writing became popular once it was published because her writing is detailed and deep. Dickinson’s work is also much different than other poets in the early 19th century because it seems as if she made her own style of writing rather than following the way others wrote poetry. In the poem “I heard a Fly buzz – when I died,” the speaker is at her deathbed surrounded by her heartbroken family who is still …show more content…
Her eyes shut, she dies, and the poem ends. Emily Dickinson’s poetry expresses how one believes death might feel, how it happens, and what others expect from death before, during, and after; however, Dickinson is often thought of as a strange woman whose only thoughts were death, but those opinions were wrong because she had a very strong relationship with her family and especially her father. In the poem “I heard a Fly buzz – when I died,” the speaker is experiencing her final moments before death. As the speaker lays on her deathbed, a fly intervenes as she is staring away at the light, which symbolizes heaven, and the fly is distracting her from going to heaven. Dickinson makes the fly be the symbol for death flying around and it shows that death could get you at any moment, much like …show more content…
She imagines how her family would react in that scenario As the speaker lays on her deathbed, she describes her family as “The Eyes around” and the speaker’s death “had wrung them dry /” meaning that her family is so heartbroken that they have been crying so much that they could cry no more. Her family is surrounding her bed after she dies “And Breaths were gathering firm,” which means her family is accepting the fact that she has died and there is nothing they could do about it (Dickinson 5-6). Emily Dickinson has a strong love for her family and especially her father. Back in Dickinson’s time, it was believed that the father is a substitute for God or God is a substitute for a father. Dickinson only had family to care about and love; she isolates herself from others and her “isolation further increased when her father died unexpectedly in 1874” (Heard 140). Dickinson had an incredible love for her father and she became heartbroken once he passed away. Dickinson often thought about her family when she wrote her poetry. In “I heard a Fly buzz – when I died,” the speaker must have known that her time of death is approaching her. Her will includes all of her written work and she has “Signed away / What portion of [her] be Assignable /” to her family (Dickinson 9-11). The speaker shows a how she cares about her family by assigning her most