Emily Dickinson's Poem 465 I Heard A Fly Buzz

Comparing and Contrasting Dickinson’s Poems, Because I Could Not Stop for Death and I Heard a Fly Buzz - When I Died

In literature, themes shape and characterize an author’s writing making each work unique as different points of view are expressed within a writing’s words and sentences. This is the case, for example, of Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “Annabel Lee” and Emily Dickinson’s poem “Because I could not stop for Death.” Both poems focus on the same theme of death, but while Poe’s poem reflects that death is an atrocious event because of the suffering and struggle that it provokes, Dickinson’s poem reflects that death is humane and that it should not be feared as it is inevitable. The two poems have both similarities and differences, and the themes and characteristics of each poem can be explained by the author’s influences and lives.

Analysis of I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died and Because I Could Not Stop for Death by Emily Dickinson

The poem “[I Heard a Fly Buzz]” by Emily Dickinson, is a sixteen line poem that consists of four quatrains (groupings of four lines). The poem is of perfect iambic meter, meaning that the lines are divided into two syllable chunks, giving emphasis to the second syllable. The first and third lines in each stanza have eight syllables (iambic tetrameter) and the second and fourth lines each have six syllables (iambic trimester). By giving such a structure to her poem, Dickinson is able to create a smooth, rhythmic feel. When looking at the poem, one can physically see dashes “-“ throughout, forcing the reader to pause again and again. This is important from Dickinson’s view as it defines her style and gives the poem a stuttery effect. This poem describes the scene and the atmosphere at the moment when someone dies with an unexpected element added in. The speaker starts by mentioning the sound of a fly, which cuts the heaviness and silence in the air

One aspect of the poem that surprises readers is the relationship between the speaker and the fly .The first surprise involved in this relationship, is the combined revelation of the fly and the speaker’s death. As the poem begins, the speaker says to readers, “I heard a fly buzz-when I died” (Dickinson, 1). After reading that the speaker heard the buzz of a fly, readers may expect the death of the fly or more detail on the fly itself. However, the speaker hits readers by telling them that they heard the buzzing at the moment of their own death. Dickinson is immediately telling readers that her poem contains supernatural elements that link to the fly. This may come as a shock to readers, since they may ponder the significance of the fly within the speaker’s death, as it is not yet revealed by the end of the poem’s first line. The relationship between the speaker and the fly continues to be surprising, as the speaker describes the fly as the power that controls their life (the gateway between life and death). The speaker says:

In Dickinson’s poem, “Because I could not stop for Death,” there is much impression in the tone, in symbols, and in the use of imagery that exudes creativity. One might undoubtedly agree to an eerie, haunting, if not frightening, tone in Dickinson’s poem. Dickinson uses controlling adjectives—“slowly” and “passed”—to create a tone that seems rather placid. For example, “We slowly drove—He knew no haste / …We passed the School … / We passed the Setting Sun—,” sets a slow, quiet, calm, and dreamy atmosphere (5, 9, 11,

Two of Emily Dickinson’s poems, “I heard a Fly buzz-when I died” and “Because I could not stop for Death” are both written about life’s stopping point, death. Although the poems are written by the same poet, both poems view death in a different manner. Between the two poems, one views death as having an everlasting life while the other anticipates everlasting life, only to realize it does not exist. While both poems are about death, both poems also illustrate that the outcome of death is a mysterious experience that can only be speculated upon with the anticipation of everlasting life.

Death is a controversial and sensitive subject. When discussing death, several questions come to mind about what happens in our afterlife, such as: where do you go and what do you see? Emily Dickinson is a poet who explores her curiosity of death and the afterlife through her creative writing ability. She displays different views on death by writing two contrasting poems: one of a softer side and another of a more ridged and scary side. When looking at dissimilar observations of death it can be seen how private and special it is; it is also understood that death is inevitable so coping with it can be taken in different ways. Emily Dickinson’s poems “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” and “I Heard A Fly Buzz When I Died” show both

This image represents the fusing of color and sound by the dying person’s diminishing senses. The uncertainty of the fly’s darting motions parallels her state of mind. Flying between the light and her, it seems to both signal the moment of death and represent the world that she is leaving.” The last two lines show the speakers confusion of her eyes. She is both distancing fear and revealing her detachment from life, “And then the Windows failed – and then/I could not see to see “. Which ends the poem, with her

     Emily Dickinson is one of the most famous authors in American History, and a good amount of that can be attributed to her uniqueness in writing. In Emily Dickinson's poem 'Because I could not stop for Death,' she characterizes her overarching theme of Death differently than it is usually described through the poetic devices of irony, imagery, symbolism, and word choice.

Emily Dickinson once said, “Dying is a wild night and a new road.” Some people welcome death with open arms while others cower in fear when confronted in the arms of death. Through the use of ambiguity, metaphors, personification and paradoxes Emily Dickinson still gives readers a sense of vagueness on how she feels about dying. Emily Dickinson inventively expresses the nature of death in the poems, “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain (280)”, “I Heard a fly Buzz—When I Died—(465)“ and “Because I could not stop for Death—(712)”.

Dickenson is very efficient in setting her scenes. She wants to set up her poem to reflect the room of her own death bed and rather than break into a simple description of a room, she describes still air being broken by the buzzing of a fly. Her poem begets questions and then follows through with answers. Why is there a fly? She is dead. She's referencing the smell of death in a quiet room, hence the fly. The silence of hyphens around "when I died" has a somber effect while also separating out herself as the subject. There is power in being subtle about a subject for sure, but Emily was wise to be so forward.

Emily Dickinson emphasizes and handles the line in a way so that the reader can understand where she’s coming from. The poem is divided up into two quatrains and consists of end-stopped lines, caesura, and enjambments. The reader can note that the first three lines and the sixth line are the only enjambments within the poem because they all run over to the next line without a pause. There are three caesuras present within the poem and are seen in lines two, five, and eight. These caesuras are significant because not only do they serve as a pause within a line, they add to the sensation and change in tone throughout the poem to really stress the importance of the themes of “Despair and “Fear.” Both of these words give the reader an idea of what

Emily Dickinson (1830-1836) is one of the greatest poets in American literature. Although she spent most of her life working in relative anonymity, her status rose sharply following her death and the subsequent publishing of much of her surviving work. Two of Dickinson’s most well-known poems are “Because I could not stop for Death—" and “I heard a Fly buzz - when I died”. I say known as because Dickinson never actually gave her poems proper titles. For this reason, the first lines of her poems have come to be used as a distinguishing reference. This paper will briefly analyze both poems in an attempt to both compare and measure their relative literary merits.