Emily Dickinson's I Heard A Fly Buzz When I Died

Emily Dickinson's poem "I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died" poses a question to the reader "what is the significance of the buzzing fly in relation to the dying person?" In a mood of outward quiet and inner calm, the dying person peacefully proceeds to bestow her possessions to others, and while willing her possessions, she finds her attention withdrawn by a fly's buzzing. The fly is introduced in close connection with "my keepsakes" and "what portion of me be assignable." The dying person has an obsession with cherished material things no longer of use to the departing owner. In the face of death, and even more of a possible spiritual life beyond death, one's concern with a few belongings is but trivial, and indeed a distraction from the issue of death itself. The physical aspects of ones existence are prominent, and this is expressively illustrated by the intervening fly. Even so small a self-evident creature is sufficient to separate the dying person from "the light," so that spiritual awareness is lost.
The theme of this poem is
However, although her poems may seem dark on the surface, there is always a hidden empowerment under the surface. In "I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died," the speaker is an empowering character, who is able to catch a glimpse of her materialistic self before she dies when a fly buzzing disturbs her peaceful deathbed experience. Similarly, in "My Life Has Stood a Loaded Gun" Dickinson portrays the gun as an object overcoming her objectified self to become the subject who has been the demise of her power. The last poem "I Could Not Stop for Death" has an underlying message that although the speaker may be buried physically, her metaphysical, or emotional self is immortal in the sense that her memories will go on for eternity. The general themes show that Dickinson is a woman that is before her time as an empowered righteous and intelligent