Emily Dickinson's poem "I heard a fly buzz when I died" is a poem about a dying person whose last thoughts are iterupted by a fly flying somewherer near her. The poem does a really good job of conveying Dickinson's spirituality and unique way of looking at death. Despite her religion, she thought very freely about death, and because of that was prone to a little uneasiness at the prospect of dieing, not knowing in the least what it would be like. This uneasiness is conveyed in the poem using a fly as a symbol for it.
As the main character of this poem is lying, aboiut to die, she goes throught an important series of thoughts in her attempt to comfort herself and get used to the idea of dieing. She first thinks about her religion, and the hope it offers to those who die of meeting God and spending eternity in heaven. Once comforted by this thought, she decides what to do with her things on earth and who to give them to. She is trying to deal with death in the most rational possible way, but the fly in the room keeps distracting her and leading her thoughts astray.
The fly in the poem is what keeps the feeling from being peaceful. The fly buzzing around is distraction and confusing to the woman, which gives the poem an eerie sort of stillness instead of the comfortable release the fourth line of the poem would suggest death to be. Because of this, I think the fly is a symbol for the poets fear and uneasiness about death. Even though there are pleanty of comforting thoughts for her to think and her business on earth is taken care of, she still can not help herself from feeling very uneasy about death. The uneasiness is there at the beginning of the poem, and is still there at the end. She describes it as being between her and the light, the light being the comfort and ease in death.
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