FREE ESSAY ON EMILY DICKINSON'S I HEARD A FLY BUZZ

EMILY DICKINSON'S I HEARD A FLY BUZZ

In Emily Dickinson's poem I Heard a Fly Buzz- When I Died, the feeling of death being
present in the room is the overall tone. The tie in between death and the flies
persistent buzzing is one that must be looked at very closely. The buzzing is not
something that the average living person would notice but under the particular
circumstances, even the smallest of details become noticeable as a man dies. As the voice
in the poem is painting the picture of a funeral, the reader becomes more intoned to the
idea of death through the use the figurative language and symbols when the voice speaks
about the mourners who have gathered, the sound of a flies buzz, and the closing of the
window. 
Within the poem Dickinson uses figurative language to her full advantage, using it to
assist her in painting the picture of there being a sad moment in time successfully. The
usage of the past tense when setting the scene where all the people were standing around
grieving was done excellent through the choose of words. When using the word wrung it
helps to suggest that the grieving is over for now, and it is now time to take control
over their breathing and move on. Also when the voice is speaking of dieing, death is
referred to signing away what he would have left to give of what at least be worth giving
away.
The usage, both placement and number of times used, of the flies buzzing was very
critical itself with in the poem. If Dickinson were to use the symbol too much it would
take away from the moment of focusing on death and cause people to think more about the
fly. The flies buzz I fell is in the text because it is something a person would under a
normal situation would ignore, but when you are dieing you become more in touch with your
senses. The sense of hearing is the last one of the five senses a person will loose as
the process of dieing comes to a closer, as in this poem. 
The idea of a window being closed is very symbolic in this poem, of a person's life
coming to an end. When the window shuts it cuts off all the light to the person's eyes,
and therefore the idea of death is being used. The window in this case may very well not
even be a glass window a person would look out, yet instead the lid to the coffin this
individual was lying in. 
Wither or not how Dickinson portrayal of death is realistic or not, she is able to
achieve it through the grammatical chooses she makes. By the words she has chosen to use
along with the modifiers there is only a couple of different ways to interpret this poem,
but the idea of death would have to be in anyone interpretation. This poem made me feel
almost a sense of grieving when I closed the books cover to the words.