Word
Gems
What is a
man but the sum of his thoughts?
Poetry:
- Emily Dickenson's
- I Heard A Fly
Buzz When I Died
Emily Dickenson's
poetry and fame did not appear until after her death. Her poem, I Heard a Fly Buzz
When I Died, describes, some believe, a near-death experience, offering in poetic
terms a recently deceased individual's perceptions just before and after death.
In the nineteenth
century, people seldom died alone. Family and friends usually surrounded the dying,
not out of morbid curiosity but in the hope that the dying might bring back a message from
beyond.
"I heard a fly
buzz when I died," the poem begins, though we do not yet know the importance of such
an observation.
I heard a Fly buzz -- when I
died |
The Stillness in the Room |
Was like the Stillness in
Air -- |
Between the Heaves of Storm
-- |
| The Eyes around --
had wrung them dry |
| And Breaths were
gathering firm |
| For that last Onset
-- when the King |
| Be witnessed -- in
the Room |
| I willed my Keepsakes -- Signed
away |
| What portion of me be |
| Assignable -- and then it was |
| There interposed a Fly |
| With Blue -- uncertain --
stumbling Buzz -- |
| Between the light -- and me -- |
| And then the windows failed --
and then |
| I could not see to see |
| |
|