Journal #28: Emily Dickinson I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died

Emily Dickinson's poem, I Heard a Fly Buzz when I Died, is a very interesting poem. Out of all of the things that were going through her head before she died, she was thinking about a fly. She could have been thinking about all of the things that all ordinary people usually think about before they die. She could have been worried about giving away all of her possessions or worried about her finances, but she was worried about her keepsakes. She said that she "willed my keepsakes, signed away what portion of me I could make assignable" (Dickinson). This means that she had already gone through the process of giving away her material goods that she could. Emily Dickinson's poetry can be read differently every time that you read the poem. She could have been talking her being able to see the light like the light in heaven at the end, but we really did not know. The fly was interrupting her because she was on her way to death and the fly got between her and the light. The very first sense to go when you die is your sight. As soon as she looses her sight, she immediately switches her focus over to her hearing. After her sight is gone, she was only there to focus on the things that she can hear. She was preparing herself for death and she was already to the point where she could not see, so she was peacefully on her way to death and she was interrupted by this really annoying buzzing sound in her ears. I would have been really mad if I was about to be dead and there was a really annoying buzzing in my ear. I hope that when I die, there are not any flies around. Because if I heard that stupid little fly when I was about to die, I would probably freak out and come back to life just to kill that little fly!