Poetry Analysis Essay

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Thomas Busch
English 495 ESM Wexler
February 10, 2010
Death and Dickinson
Death has been the immortal fear to many because of the frightening thought of leaving this world before enjoying all the fruits of life. However, Emily Dickinson’s acceptance of death as a natural step into the next life has often regarded Death as a person rather than just the end. Her best known poem “I heard a Fly buzz, when I died,” demonstrates how Dickinson gives Death a sense of humanity. Samuel Baskett delves even further into the poem’s iambic pattern and form while Katrina Bachinger explores the figurative language, tone and sound in Dickinson’s poem. To Dickinson, Death is a complex and controversial phenomenon that one must understand and respect rather than fear it. Dickinson’s well constructed poem “I heard a Fly buzz, when I died” does tap into the unfathomable nature of Death from the agony of dying to one’s eternal rest.
One of Dickinson’s most famous poems, “I heard a Fly buzz” depicts the mental interruption posed by trivial details at the most crucial moments for instance the moment of one’s appending death. Interesting enough, all of Dickinson’s rhymes in the poem take place before the final stanza. However, they are half-rhymes such as “I heard a Fly buzz-when I died/ The Eyes around-had wrung them dry” or “The Stillness in the room/ And breaths were gathering firm,” (Dickinson 70).
As the poem progresses, “formal patterns are employed” (Baskett 341) when Dickinson’s line length utilizes iambic trimeter and tetrameter lines. She places “four
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stresses in the first and third lines” (Baskett 342) of each stanza. Her usage of a “rhythmic insertion” places “long dashes to interrupt the meter,” (Baskett 342) thereby presenting three stresses on the second and fourth stanzas. Dickinson’s poem begins to show an ABCB rhyme scheme. Baskett assumes that Dickinson used this particular rhyme technique in order “to build tension or a sense of self-completion that comes with the speaker’s death,” (Baskett 344).
Dickinson’s unusual acceptance of Death in the poem involves a bright light which could be her transference from this world to the next. She describes Death as if he was a “member of the family or a true friend” (Bachinger 13) while the rest of her relatives are dead to her. According to Bachinger, there was “no love or mourning” for her when she died even though Dickinson exclaims that her family and friends’ “eyes wrung dry,” (Dickinson 70). One would assume that her family had cried there eyes out but in actuality her family could not even force a tear out from their eyes. Dickinson use of irony is brilliant because for an individual to have to force a tear out instead of coming naturally shows a soulless creature which Death is often perceived as.
The poem gives a detailed suggestion on the dying person’s deathbed where her loved ones harden themselves as their breaths were firming themselves for “that last onset,” as the dying woman signs away in her will. Baskett demonstrates Dickinson’s “turn of phrase” as she says “Signed away/ What portion of me be / Assignable” (Dickinson 70). After the speaker of the poem has signed away her possessions, she begins to hear a fly buzz as she lay on her deathbed. The dying woman describes the fly as “blue” with an “uncertain stumbling Buzz” (Dickinson 70) thereby introducing an

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onomatopoeia in order for the reader to suggest or imagine the actual sound of a fly buzzing around an appending corpse.
The Fly itself is the personification of Death because like the common fly, Death is drawn to the deceased and decomposed. The poem becomes macabre as the disregarded fly cuts the speaker off from the light with his buzzing wings until she cannot “see to see” (Dickinson 70). The fly has interposed itself “With blue—uncertain stumbling Buzz—” (Dickinson 70) and the dying woman’s eyes that have gazed upon the light, are described as windows which have “ failed” her because of the fly’s presence. Bachinger interprets “this dampening of the light in her eyes” (Bachinger 14) as demonic intervention as if a devil is laying claim to the dying woman’s soul. This interpretation is possible since Beelzebub, who is Satan’s 2nd in command is often depicted in the Christian doctrine as the Lord of the Flies.
However, Dickinson makes no mention that the fly has grown in power or in stature. The rhyme in the final stanza is not only a full rhyme where “Between the light-and me-/ I could not see to see-,” (Dickinson 70) but it is a mixed message. It could either mean Death has come at the same time as God has and Death took the life out of the woman’s eyes. On the other hand, the dying woman could have gazed upon God’s beautiful light and was so bright that she was blinded by the glory of Heaven. Another interpretation could be that Death came between her and God. Now, her soul has been denied the right to enter the light and possibly trapped in limbo. It is difficult to determine whether Dickinson is mentioning Death or God metaphorically as she says
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“For the last Onset-when the King/ Be witnessed-in the Room-/ And the Windows failed,” (Dickinson 70).
Death still remains controversial in the sense of fairness. Yet, one will tell another that life is unfair but it is equally unfair to waste one’s entire life waiting for the appending fate instead of enjoying life to the fullest with one’s self or with others. However, thanks to Dickinson, Death has a more dignified meaning and persona.
Work Cited:
1. Dickinson, Emily “I heard a Fly buzz-when I died.” 100 Best-Loved Poems Ed. Philip Smith. New York, Dover Publications, 1995 70. Print.
2. Baskett, Sam S. “The Making of An Image: Emily Dickinson’s Blue Fly.” New England Quarterly81.2 (Jun 2008): 340-344. Academic Search Elite (Ebsco). Web.
3. Bachinger, Katrina. “Dickinson's I Heard A Fly Buzz.” Explicator 43.3 (Spring 1985): 13-15. Academic Search Elite (Ebsco). Web.