I heard a Fly buzz – when I died (465) by Emily Dickinson

Full Text

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 portion of me be
Assignable – and then it was
There interposed a Fly –

With Blue – uncertain – stumbling Buzz –
Between the light – and me –
And then – the Windows failed – and then
I could not see to see –

Overview

The deathbed prepared for "the King" (God, revelation, meaning) gets a fly instead. This is Dickinson's blackest joke: the moment of death, heavy with expectation, interrupted by something trivial, physical, ordinary. The "uncertain stumbling Buzz" is the poem's climax—not transcendence but a fly between light and dying eyes.

Line-by-Line Analysis

Lines 1-4

The scene is hushed, expectant—"between the Heaves of Storm." Everyone awaits something significant.

Lines 13-16

The fly "interposes"—blocks the expected revelation. "Blue – uncertain – stumbling" makes it pathetically real. "I could not see to see" is consciousness ending.

Themes

• Death without transcendence
• The mundane interrupting the sacred
• Consciousness at its limit
• Failed expectations

Literary Devices

Bathos

Expecting "the King," getting a fly — The anticlimax is the point—death may offer nothing but distraction.

Synesthesia

"Blue – uncertain – stumbling Buzz" — Sound described as color and movement blends senses as they fail.

Historical Context

Dickinson wrote this during the Civil War, when death was everywhere. The period expected "good deaths" with clear spiritual meaning. This poem refuses that comfort—death is physical, messy, meaningless.