Discuss the sounds in Emily Dickinson's poem "I heard a Fly buzz—when I died—."
In Emily Dickinson's "I heard a Fly buzz—when I died—," our attention is drawn to sound first by the use of onomatopoeia and the word "buzz."
This word draws our attention perhaps more so than the fly, even though it ("Fly") is capitalized which might initially catch our attention as the reader.
Other words that draw our attention to sound are "stillness," though this word, when combined in the simile "like the Stillness in the Air — Between Heaves of Storm—" gives us the sense that the stillness is charged, not dead.
We also hear sound with the word "breaths," which are also not still, but "charged" with the fear and preparation of impending death ("For that last Onset — when the King / Be witnessed...").
At the end of the poem, the "uncertain stumbling Buzz" may refer to the narrator's uncertain perception of what she hears as her senses fail, or may symbolically represent her uncertainty as she approaches the new, undiscovered country (as described in Hamlet): death.
References to sound abound through the poem, though even the stillness referenced does not necessarily mean quiet or emptiness.
What type of diction is used in Emily Dickinson's "I heard a Fly buzz—when I died—"?
Concrete diction is built with words that allow the reader to create a mental picture of the author’s intention. These are usually sensory words that appeal to the reader’s ability to imaginatively see, hear, feel, taste, or smell. Sometimes we refer to these words as “imagery,” especially when we are talking about poetry.
Abstract diction makes use of words that do not create such a mental picture. While they may be informative and necessary to some kinds of writing, they are vague and do not create a memorable impression for the reader. To see the difference, check out the gorilla example at the link below. It’s a good, although a little gross, way to understand the difference between abstract and concrete.
Dickinson’s poem “I heard a Fly buzz—when I died—“ is a nice example of concrete diction or imagery. Look at the first stanza:
I heard a Fly buzz - when I died -
The Stillness in the Room
Was like the Stillness in the Air -
Between the Heaves of Storm –
While this poem can be interpreted in various ways, we can generally assume that Emily wants to express the idea of the quietness of the moment of death. While most people would simply say something like “Death is very quiet,” or, “In death there is no sound,” Dickinson creates a more vivid image.
The word “buzz,” which is an example of onomatopoeia, serves to emphasize how quiet the room is in death; it has to be quiet to hear a fly make that sound. Then the actual word “stillness” imparts more meaning than just “quiet.” It implies a physical state that affects everything in the room. Finally, the simile that compares the stillness to the space “Between the Heaves of Storm” gives the reader something real (a storm) to latch on to mentally.
Another good question to ponder would be: what does Dickinson mean by “Between the Heaves of Storm”?
Further Reading
Analyze Emily Dickinson's poem "I heard a Fly buzz—when I died—".
Emily Dickinson wrote more than 500 poems on the subject of death, and this is one of her greatest. In "I heard a Fly buzz--", as in another of her famous poems “Because I could not stop for Death,” Dickinson imagines the actual experience of death through the words of a speaker who has died. This speaker is looking back on the moment of death and recalling just what the experience was like. As the poem opens, the room is hushed (line 2: “The Stillness in the Room”). The dying woman’s close friends and relatives gather around: a deathbed scene, harkening to a time when people more often died at home than in a hospital. People have been crying, but as the moment of death approaches, some of them have cried themselves out (line 5: “had wrung them dry”) and are holding their breath in anticipation of the momentous occasion. The woman has already taken care of her major property but is bequeathing smaller items (line 9: “Keepsakes—signed away”) to her loved ones. That’s when the fly appears, interposing itself between the woman and her surroundings (lines 11-12: “and then it was / There interposed a fly—“).
The poem’s power comes from the irony of the contrast between the expected, in this case the momentous coming of death versus. actual ordinary cessation of senses. In lines 7 and 8, all are waiting for “that last Onset” and the moment when “the King / Be witnessed.” Instead of a majestical King, the woman witnesses as her final sensory experience only a common housefly. It has been said that hearing is the last physical sense to go and that is the case with this speaker. As the room goes dark, she cannot “see to see,” but her final awareness is of the buzzing of the fly. The onomatopoeia is very effective: “buzz” in line 1; then repeated with a capital letter, “Buzz,” in line 13 and rhyming with “was” from line 10. Even more powerful is the interplay of imagery and consonance in line 13 (“With Blue—uncertain stumbling Buzz”) to emphasize the color, motion and sound of that pervasive fly. Some readers will also see the fly as the symbol of death, again in contrast with the King. The symbol of death is not majestical or grand as the King would be; it is ordinary and even repulsive as the sense of life fades away to nothing.
What poetic techniques does Dickinson employ in "I heard a Fly buzz—when I died—"?
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According to Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition, at enotes.com, some of the literary devices Emily Dickinson employs in her poem "I heard a Fly buzz —when I died" are extremely sophisticated.
The first device used is called synesthesia. This device involves the use of one sense to describe another. For example, the breaths of the "watchers" are gathered, waiting for the last breath of the woman who lies dying:
And breaths were gathering sure
For that last onset...
The other is called paronomasia which is another term for wordplay, a complicated way to used words in both obvious and subtle ways which may only be noticed by the most discerning reader. For example, the room where the woman is dying is very still, but the atmosphere is charged like the lull between the movements of a storm front:
The room is still, but this stillness resembles the interval between the heavings of a storm.
There is the discussion of the dying person's will, and the will in which she has bequeathed her belongings. The wordplay here is found with the word "will" with its different meanings.
In general, the poem is made up of four stanzas, which act like paragraphs in a poem. It is in the stanza that we find the rhyme scheme of the poem: the end rhyme—or the rhyming of the words at the end of lines—follows the pattern: abcb. This means that the words at the end of the first and third lines do NOT rhyme, but the second and fourth lines DO rhyme at the end. For example, in the first stanza, "form" and "storm" rhyme. In the second stanza, "sure" and "power" rhyme (though "power" is closer to a "near-rhyme," also known as "slant rhyme"). The third stanza shows the second and fourth lines rhyming with "I" and "fly" and so forth.
The rhythmic structure in the stanzas, for the most part, seems to show three stressed syllables in the second and fourth lines (called "trimeter"), and four stressed syllables in the first and third lines (called "tetrameter"). The meter represents a certain number of paired syllables for each line, also called "feet." The stress usually falls on the second syllable. For example, in the following line, see where the stress lies—this stress creates the rocking motion of the poem, especially when read out loud:
I heard a fly buzz when I died
The stress lies on "heard," "fly," "when," and "died." When scanning the line, it would look like this: ^ / ^ / ^ / ^ / (where the caret "^" shows an unstressed syllable, and the slash "/" shows a stressed syllable).
Onomatopoeia is used with the world "buzz" and "breaths." And imagery, another poetic device, is vividly rendered in the line "There interposed a fly, / With blue, uncertain, stumbling buzz..."
Additional Source:
http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072405228/student_view0/poetic_glossary.html
What are the implicit and explicit meanings of Emily Dickinson's poem "I heard a Fly buzz—when I died—"?
Let's start with the easier—the explicit. Our speaker starts by saying that she literally heard a fly buzz when she died. Move to stanza two and we learn that the room gets quiet and it would seem she sees God enter her room. In stanza three she shares that she has willed away her belongings and just before her last moments, a fly interjects itself into her line of vision. In her final stanza, the speaker shares that the last thing she sees before it all goes black is the fly, with its continual buzzing.
When we look more deeply, we see our speaker sharing her struggles with the eternal life and the natural life. Through each stanza, we see her balancing both spectrums, perhaps to remind us how intrinsically tied together both worlds can be. As she wills away her keepsakes, and we assume is taking her final breaths, she is brought back to her earthly place with the fly appearing in her line of vision, ultimately blocking her first look into the afterlife. But if we go back to the first line, we can infer that our speaker is able to unshackle herself from this world because she writes "I heard a Fly buzz—when I died—". With the last portion, we learn that this poem was written post-mortem, a truly interesting perspective.
How does Emily Dickinson's "I heard a Fly buzz—when I died—" portray death?
In this poem, Dickinson presents an ironic portrait of death, relying on unexpected elements to make death seem ordinary and commonplace.
The line opens with a point of situational irony. As the speaker takes her final breath, the final earthly sound that registers in her consciousness is the buzzing of a fly. This is not what readers expect; religious readers might expect a heavenly chorus to welcome her into the afterlife, for example. Instead, her ears are filled with the sounds of a common earthly annoyance. Consider the way humans treat flies: swatting, slapping, shooing. As the speaker lies trapped in an earthly body that is no longer capable of movement, it is the common fly that enjoys its freedom.
Flies are also associated with death itself. Fly larvae are quite effective decomposers. Ironically, this fly seems to have arrived a bit early—just in time for the speaker to recognize its presence and possibly its motives.
Those who gather around the bed of the speaker in those final moments wait in anticipation of God, her "King," to claim her soul. They feel that they are "witnesse[s]" to an incredible spiritual moment at the end of the speaker's life. Ironically, the speaker doesn't see the face of God in those final moments; instead, the "light" in her room, which symbolizes faith and goodness, is blocked by a "stumbling" fly. What an anticlimactic moment!
The irony in "I heard a Fly buzz—when I died—" demonstrates the everyday and commonplace nature of death. The speaker's final moments reflect neither horror nor the miraculous; instead, the irony stresses the natural progression of the human form.
What significance does the fly have in Emily Dickinson's poem "I heard a Fly buzz—when I died—"?
I believe Emily chose the fly for two main reasons. The first reason is a practical one. 'Fly' is a really easy one syllable word to rhyme with. Looking at how the word is used within the context of the language of the poem, 'fly' was a diction choice based on brevity of length and simplicity. Using some other sort of insect would have been tiresome and difficult; although she might could have used the word 'bee.' Bees also buzz.
Dickinson also probably chose the fly for its simple, common nature. Flys have the reputation for being slightly annoying creatures, always showing up when they are least wanted. Dickinson incorporates the fly to anchor her poem in a common occurrence that people could readily identify with.
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