Emily Dickinson's poem, "I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died," is an attempt to answer one of life's major questions: What happens when we die? In her choice of words, images, and sound patterns, Dickinson reflects the incongruity between prevailing religious attitudes about death and the afterlife and her personal feelings about immortality. It seems to say that maybe we think we understand what death will be like, but maybe we don't at all. Perhaps it is not accompanied by the notes of heavenly choirs or the brilliant lights that illuminate the mysteries of eternity. Maybe death is as ordinary as a fly buzzing around the room, and when it ends the soul is left in darkness. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayLike his life, the poem is a mixture of conformity and nonconformity. It is written in the form, rhythm and meter of a church hymn: four stanzas of four iambic lines with four stresses in the first and third lines and three stresses in the second and fourth lines. Thoughts of death and immortality may require this kind of dignity, but the resemblance to a hymn ends there. He doesn't rhyme the second and fourth verses perfectly, but instead uses slant rhyme, as in "Room-Storm", "firm-Room", and "be-Fly". The use of "these rough rhymes often capture[s] the jarring discordances and painful doubts [of his] thought[s]" (Pickard 51). The message here is not the praise of Almighty God. In fact, we are led to wonder if God really enters. From the first line Dickinson offers us a non-traditional vision of death. “I heard the buzz of a fly…” is what we might say of a sound we hear during a picnic or a walk in a garden, but she surprises us by ending with “when I died…”. Immediately we know that the speaker is conveying the message to us from beyond the veil. We are surprised that a dying soul is able to concentrate on such insignificant background noise, but the description of the room in the next three lines gives a reason why a fly might be heard: The quiet in the room was like the quiet in the air. --Between the peaks of the storm-- (L 2-4) Compare the stillness in the death room to the feeling of the air between heavy storms, as when the eye of a hurricane passes over the land before the next onslaught of wind and rain. There is a silence of tense and terrible waiting, ears open for the smallest sound. The final consonant "m" in stanza and storm adds to the feeling of heaviness and thickness in the atmosphere, as does the use of the word jolts, which, although it means to rise or ascend, gives a feeling of weight. . Furthermore, it is an example of how Dickinson is able to use the precise word to support her underlying premise that nothing is what it seems to be in this poem. The use of capital letters at the beginning of "Stillness" and "Room" gives them the quality feeling of proper names - this is a special kind of stillness and a special kind of room made sacred by respect for the dying and the closeness of the 'eternity. Dickinson uses consonance to add rhythm to these lines as she repeats the initial "st" in quiet, stillness and storm, but since they are opposite in nature, she continues the incongruity of the poem, linking them together by their sound just as the sound of the fly is linked to death. With two simple words in the second stanza, Eyes and Breaths, Dickinson creates an entire image of mourners gathered around the bed in silent waiting, "The Eyes around - had wring them dry--." These mourners have shed their their last tears and, although the eyes cannot be squeezed like a wet handkerchief, we can imagine some women standing by the bed with theirtwisted handkerchiefs held tightly in suspense, ready in case another bout of crying overtakes them. In the next line we almost see the heave of their breasts as they inhale deeply "Breaths... gathering steadily / For that last beginning...", the moment when the spirit leaves the body and everything is over. According to a biographer of Dickinson, John Pickard, "in Emily Dickinson's time it was a common practice to observe the dying. For those of religious faith, the moment of death meant that a soul left its body to enter heaven. Thus the dying person's final actions were carefully examined for an indication of approaching immortality" (103). It may be that curious onlookers want to rush the moment so they can ease their minds about the mystery of death. Dickinson surely witnessed some of these scenes when her loved ones died, and because she has always lived with dubious faith, she needed to examine this moment. Pickard concludes that "she was continually concerned with death, resurrection, immortality, and judgment and never ceased to examine the undeniable reality of God" (8). So this "beginning" of death is a crucial moment for her. However, a "beginning" is not only defined as the beginning of something positive, such as the beginning of spring, but can also be an attack or assault, such as resisting the onslaught of the army (Webster 802), the which is further confirmation of his uncertainty as to whether death is a triumph or a tragedy. With this thought in mind, let's look at the next two lines of the poem. "when the King / is seen - in the room...." Who or what does the King symbolize? One reviewer believes that Dickinson equates the King with death itself: "All the elements in this part of the poem lead to the imminent arrival of the 'King' who is Death" (Beck 31). Another sees the King as a symbol of the Lord Jesus Christ, since in the Christian tradition the Lord is commonly called the King of Kings. Death is therefore a moment in which the King of Terrors is defeated by the King of Kings and the equanimity with which Dickinson's narrator awaits death strongly suggests that the "King" who is to be "witness" is as much or more the Lord as is Death. (Bachinger 13) Both interpretations allow the King to usher in the moment of death. If the King is death, his debut is an attempt on life. If the King is Jesus Christ, his glorious debut brings the gift of eternal life. Whether death is the king because he has power over life, or Christ is the king because he also has power over life, does not change the essence of the poem. The fact that the King represents Christ would fit Dickinson's agnosticism in that if Christ the King is supposed to come and accompany the soul of man to its eternal home accompanied by great light and angelic music, it certainly does not happen here . There is only a buzzing fly and darkness. It's as if her hopes are for eternal life, but her fears persist in telling her otherwise. Pickard notes that "for her death remained the supreme experience, bringing either a new spiritual existence or lifeless immobility" (124), so the question remains unanswered. The third stanza continues the dilemma as the deceased explains his preparations for death, “I wanted my memories to be signed / what part of me was / assignable –” (9-11). Dickinson creates an internal rhythm with the words Signed and Assignable, just as the speaker can experience inner peace by assigning his worldly possessions to others. But, in truth, the speaker has little control over life or death. He has made his earthly provisions; spiritual dispositions are beyond his control. He cannot assign himself any heavenly reward: only God can do this. What he is able to transfer to others is notpart of oneself, but simply objects external to oneself associated with memories. The word Keepsakes implies that objects are material things kept sacred, and perhaps Dickinson is saying that sacredness is left behind when we die because there are no heavenly mansions waiting for us as the ministers of his time taught. In support of this idea, Pickard quotes from Albert J. Gelpi's Emily Dickinson: The Mind of a Poet that "she believed that the 'supernatural is only the natural revealed' and continually wondered whether the sky could possess all the beauty that found on earth" (38). At this point the dying soul and its mourners are prepared for the final moment to come, and there is nothing left to do but wait for the King's entrance. Then quickly, before we know what is happening. , Dickinson breaks the poem as quickly as a dry, brittle tree branch with these lines "and then it was / There interposed a Fly--" this is not a wandering summer insect that accidentally flew in room. He is an unholy intruder in this dark scene. He has taken a position between dying and death and signals that there will be no happy ending. Not only does this fly appear at the most inopportune moment, but "With Blue - uncertain stumble Buzz --". The word Blue may refer to the color of the fly, but with Dickinson it means much more. In Images of Emily Dickinson, Rebecca Patterson made an in-depth study of the use of color in Dickinson's poems and letters. She says that "Whether azure, mazarine, sapphire, or plain blue, the color is most often and naturally associated with the sky. If [she] is happy, blue connotes warmth, freedom... unlimited power. If unhappy, it is the color of death or cold, fearful… veil between this world and the next” (Patterson 123). This interpretation seems to fit this poem perfectly. The speaker does not experience unlimited freedom or power, rather he is faced with the veil of the invisible world beyond. The fly has an uncertain, stumbling blue buzz – and as Dickinson creates this synesthesia of color and sound, it reflects the uncertainty in his mind regarding what will happen to the spirit at death (Pickard 52). Since the fly places itself “between the light – and me –” (14), it interferes with the expected peaceful passage. Whatever vision is anticipated is obscured because of the fly. Is the fly just a “minor irritant that distracts from the magnificent approach of death” (Pickard 104)? Is it “representative of the decay and putrefaction of something ugly and unpleasant” (Beck 31)? Katrina Bachinger believes that "For Dickinson, that little fly is God. He who hears its 'uncertain buzz' and sees its 'blue,' a favorite romantic color for eternity, does not neglect God, the King of Kings, but enter Paradise. before death" (15). According to his interpretation, God, in the form of Moscow, comes "among the light" and takes the person of the poem to Heaven before his final expiration. However, since the last two lines of the poem "And then the windows failed" - and then / I could not see to see--, "indicate that whatever light there may have been on the other side of the window has been obscured by the flies, interpretations of Pickard and Beck seem to fit better with the mood of the entire poem, that death is not the ultimate spiritual experience. Peck's interpretation of the fly as an irritant also supports Dickinson's sense that nature, God, and the man are rarely in harmony (Pickard 38). We must also reiterate that Dickinson did not support the traditional religious views of her time. She was not sure of the existence of immortality, although she desired it and the eyes - the "windows" of the soul - looked into eternity and saw nothing, this would confirm his suspicions that all greatness and, 1967.