Journal 28 - "I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died"

"I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died" is a weird symbolic Emily Dickinson poem. The fly in the poem stops the woman from dying for a short period of time. The fly's buzzing disrupted the "silence" in the room. The fly came in between the narrator and the light. The light symbolizes Heaven or whatever afterlife the narrator believes in (Valhalla, Elysian Fields, or Hell, but most likely Heaven considering Emily Dickinson's background and the religion that surrounded her in New England). The narrator had a will and had her keepsakes willed away and as she "signed" it, her possessions were in order. That means the narrator knew that she was going to die and had everything arranged for her children/ heirs/ beneficiaries. Next to her bedside, the narrator's next of kin and close friends had "wrung them (eyes) dry" which symbolizes that they had cried and expressed their sorrow, but know had past that stage of grief and accepted the narrator's passing. As she was ready to be taken to the next adventure, the silence (now that there was no more crying since everyone knew and accepted that the narrator was going to die) was interrupted by a fly. The buzzing of the fly disturbed the narrator's inner peace and acceptance of her moving into the next life (or reincarnation or rebirth or peace and happiness in a better place). The unexpected fly startled the narrator away from the light from the "window". The window light was really the infamous light that whisks the dying to whatever comes after death. For a moment the fly took her away from the light and drew her attention to the fly. But then the "window closed" and the narrator could not see anymore. That could be interpreted in two ways. The narrator could have died, or she could have lived another day. The blindness could have came from her eyes being closed forever. Or it could have come from the light disappearing and the narrator continuing to live.

Dickinson, Emily . "I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died." Bartleby.com: Great Books Online. Web. 27 Mar. 2012.