I Heard A Fly Buzz When I Died

Death is the black sheep of conversations. However, the reason for this topic to be unspoken is not only the darkness related to the topic itself, but in fact, what comes after it (if anything at all). For as long as humans have inhabited the earth, people have had their own theories about afterlife. In the poem “I Heard a Fly Buzz - When I Died,” the ghost speaker reflects on her last minutes of life, curiously searching and reassuring herself of the possibility of an afterlife promised by God when suddenly a fly shifts her thoughts to pointless wandering. Despite the fact that the speaker is preparing for death, something as small as a fly is able to separate her from the situation, even if it is just for a second, allowing her to reevaluate
The speaker was not prepared for her thoughts to be interrupted, so once the fly appears, it subdues her reassurance of an afterlife. The fly, “With Blue - uncertain - stumbling Buzz -” (l. 13), completely represents the speaker’s thought in the back of her head of the possibility of God’s existence. As humans, people will always question knowledge that relies purely on faith, especially a religion. The fact that such strong beliefs are based on trust, and not factual evidence, will eventually lead even the most devoted follower to question the possibility at one point or another. In the speaker’s case, her questionable moment came at the time right before her passing, causing her to see the fly as a disconnection from her own faith. In the final stanza, the fly comes “Between the light - and me -” (l. 14), preventing the speaker from crossing over to the other side that she once believed existed. It is indeed possible that the fly could have represented a past memory of sin. But on a deeper level, the fly could represent the lack of existence in an afterlife at all. The conclusion of constant religious metaphors used in this poem provide an explanation on why the fly could possibly represent this horrific thought for the