I Heard A Fly Buzz When I Died Essay

Death; the action or fact of dying or being killed; the end of the life of a person or organism (Death). Is there life after death? In Greek mythology, they believed that once someone passed they would travel to the entrance of the Underworld where they would pay passage to get into the Underworld (Wikipedia contributors). Then in Egyptian mythology Ra the sun god will guide the ones who passed to the afterlife (Egyptian Afterlife … Crystalinks). Last Emily Dickinson was fascinated with this particular subject “because she was interested in resolving religious doubts about life continuing after death (Heller). In her poem numbered 465 “I heard a Fly Buzz When I Died” was no different her poem has a simple writing format but her use of symbolism are what characterize the aspects of life after death. Dickinson's poem “I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died” is four stanzas long each four verses long and each stanza is a symbolic step to death from the narrator who is speaking from the grave. The first stanza starts with the line “I heard a fly buzz when I died;” then is followed by the lines “The stillness round my form / Was like the stillness in the air / Between the heaves of storms” (Dickinson).The first line is a statement, that the
The first two and a half lines symbolize the action of giving away all earthly possessions including the speakers mortal body. This invites the readers to question what is going to happen to them when their earthly possessions are stripped from them and all there's left with is their body and soul (Priddy). Then the last line and a half are “-and then / There interposed a fly,” the fly could symbolize that the speaker is still alive the use of the word “interposed” suggests that the fly was interrupting the speaker’s peace as he/she was at peace with his/her chose to give up all earthly