dickinson

“I heard a Fly buzz” Emily Dickinson’s works addressed many dark subjects, including death. In the poem #465, “I heard a fly buzz”; Dickinson uses diction and imagery to express the last thoughts and sensations of the narrator while dying, and the ultimate emptiness in death. The theme of death is expressed by many ideas in the poem. Some examples of this are: the focus on the fly; the description of mourners gathered around the …

…failed, and then I could not see” Emily Dickinson shed light on a perspective not usually noted when discussing death; that of the dying or dead. The narrator is at peace, and silently accounts the state of affairs during her last moments. It is a beautiful perspective that allows dying to lose its tragic connotation, moreover draws the reader just past the line between life and death before letting us go to ponder its affects.