28 pages • 56 minutes read
Emily DickinsonI heard a Fly buzz — when I died
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1896A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Further Reading & Resources
Related Poems
“Safe in their Alabaster Chambers– (216)” by Emily Dickinson (1859, 1861)
Dickinson revised her poem, “Safe in their Alabaster Chambers—,” in 1859 and 1861. The poem frames death outside the perspective of the mourners and the deceased. Dickinson utilizes a 3rd person omniscient voice for her speaker. Like “I heard a Fly buzz—when I died—,” “Safe in their Alabaster Chambers—” questions the afterlife.
In both versions of “Safe in their Alabaster Chambers—,” Dickinson portrays the dead as still inhabiting the mortal plain yet unnoticed by it (Lines 2-3). The dead people “sleep” in the 1859 version while they “lie” in the 1861 revision (Line 4). Dickinson calls both variations of the deceased “meek members of the Resurrection” as if the Church played a joke on them with the promise of an unobtainable immortal life.
The 1859 “Safe in their Alabaster Chambers—” maintains that cynical tone towards God. The “light laughs the breeze” radiates from a castle above the dead, invoking the image of the Kingdom of Heaven. God finds amusement in the dead humans’ unfulfilled expectations (Lines 8-9). The speaker ends the poem lamenting that good judgment and reason died too. However, Dickinson re-wrote the last stanza, notably a year after her maternal aunt’s death, to portray God’s absence rather than cruelty.
“Because I could not stop for Death (479)” by Emily Dickinson (~1863)
Dickinson takes a different approach towards portraying Death in her “Because I could not stop for Death (479).” Written around a year after “I heard a Fly buzz – when I died,” Dickinson removes the question of the Fly’s status as a psychopomp by explicitly personifying Death. While the speaker loses their sight in a cold and impersonal room in “I heard a Fly Buzz – when I died,” Death escorts the speaker on a comforting walk through the speaker’s community (Lines 9-20). The fourth line even guarantees the speaker immortality, unlike the speaker’s wait for “the King / [to] Be witnessed” (Lines 7-8) in “I heard a Fly Buzz – when I died.” The poem’s more optimistic tone could be a result of Dickinson’s desire to experience solace during the Civil War. For further analysis of “Because I could not stop for Death,” read the SuperSummary guide.
“Before I got my eye put out– (336)” by Emily Dickinson (1862)
Dickinson also uses sight as an epistemological tool and a method to explore what it means to interact with the world with finite time in this 1862 poem. From a biographical perspective, Dickinson probably wrote “Before I got my eye put out—” in response to her eye issues. Reading this poem with “I heard a Fly buzz — when I died” and her love of botany in mind, the reader gains insight into sight’s importance in Dickinson’s defining of the world and personal agency.
Further Literary Resources
“A ‘Poetry-Fueled War’” by Ruth Graham (2012)
The Civil War’s mass casualties traumatized Americans on both sides of the war. As a result, elegy became a popular coping mechanism and advocacy tool. Duquesne University associate English professor Faith Barrett and journalist Ruth Graham discuss Civil War poetry’s reputation and rhetorical impact on modern poetics and nationalism for The Poetry Foundation website. Barrett highlights Dickinson and her contemporaries’ use of the elegiac, ballad, and narrative forms to record the experiences of civilians and soldiers during the Civil War and its aftermath. The 2012 interview helps place Dickinson within the poetic trends of her day.
“The Drift Called the Infinite: Emily Dickinson on Making Sense of Loss” by Maria Popova (2017)
For readers interested in further exploring Dickinson’s relationship with death, literary critic Maria Popova writes about Dickinson’s reaction to her mother’s passing in “The Drift Called the Infinite: Emily Dickinson on Making Sense of Loss.” Popova frames Dickinson’s grief through the lens of her agonistic-leaning religious views and her correspondence with other loved ones. As Dickinson’s mother remains elusive to scholarship, Popova offers a refreshing biographical perspective. Additionally, the article provides insight into Dickinson’s shifting outlook on mortality and the afterlife for anyone finished analyzing “I heard a Fly buzz—when I died—.”
Video: “Girl Talk with the Dead“ by Caitlin Doughty
Mortician Caitlin Doughty offers humorous insight into the history of death on her YouTube channel, Ask a Mortician. Her video, “Girl Talk with the Dead,” focuses on the 19th-century Spiritualist movement, which sought to confirm and bridge a connection with the afterlife. This religious faction provides another way to understand Dickinson’s poetry and understand the era’s religious landscape.
Listen to Poem
Pulitzer-Prize winning American poet Kay Ryan recites “I heard a Fly buzz—when I died—” by Emily Dickinson to celebrate Dickinson’s 184th birthday in 2014.
Related Titles
By Emily Dickinson
